TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 727 
acidity or alkalinity of the liquid. Under the most favorable 
circumstances it requires at least twenty-four hours before the 
phenomena are perceptible by any external signs. During 
this first period a sort of peristaltic motion takes place in the 
liquid, which movement is in order entirely to remove the 
oxygen of the air that is dissolved in the fluid, and to replace 
it with carbonic acid gas. The total disappearance of the 
oxygen gas, when the liquid is neutral or slightly alkaline, is 
generally caused by the development of the smallest infusoria, 
viz., the Manas crepusculum , and the Bacterium termo. A slight 
disturbance is caused in the liquid because these little beings 
travel in all directions. 
When the first effects of the abstraction of the dissolved 
oxygen is accomplished, they perish, and finally sink to the 
bottom of the vessel like a precipitate, and if by chance the 
liquid does not contain fecundative germs of the ferments of 
which I am now about to speak, it would remain indefinitely 
in that state without putrefying or fermenting in any way. 
Such a case is rare, but I have, however, met with several 
instances. More frequently when the oxygen, which was in 
solution in the liquid has disappeared, the vibrion-ferments, 
which have no need of this gas to exist, begin to show them • 
selves, and putrefaction declares itself immediately. It ac¬ 
celerates little by little, following the progressive march of 
the development of the vibrions. As to the putrefaction, it 
becomes so intense, that to microscopically examine one 
single drop is very painful, even if the examination only last 
a few minutes. But I must here observe that the fetidness 
of the liquid and the gas principally depends on the prepara¬ 
tion of sulphur, which enters into the substance undergoing 
putrefaction. The odour is hardly perceptible if the sub¬ 
stance is not sulphurous. Such, for instance, is the case in 
the fermentation of albumenoid substances which water may 
remove from the yeast of beer. Such is also the case with 
the butyric fermentation. For, according to the results 
shown, but which appertain to my anterior studies, the 
butyric fermentation is by the nature of its ferment a phe¬ 
nomenon exactly of the same order as regular putrefaction. 
For this reason the view which lias been taken of putrefaction 
is in some things to limited. The result of the proceeding 
observations is that the contact of air is by no means neces¬ 
sary to the development of putrefaction. On the contrary, 
if the dissolved oxygen in a putrescent liquid were not at 
once abstracted by the action of special beings, putrefaction 
would not take place, as the oxygen would destroy any 
vibrions which might have been developed at the beginning. 
