ON VINOUS FERMENTATION. 
51 
this purpose, in a vessel filled with hydrogen gas. At the end 
of this time I examined by the microscope a portion of the 
deposit which the juice had thrown down, and found it almost 
amorphous — but upon making a similar examination, after by 
the introduction of oxygen into the vessel the vinous ferment- 
ation had been excited, I found in the deposit many globules. 
We would then be tempted to suspect — 1, that the germs of 
these little vegetables form part of the matter of the sediment; 
2, that there is no germination while they are enclosed in the 
grape; and 3, that this germination takes place when they are 
exposed to the action of oxygen gas, and it is by the com- 
mencement of their development that they become capable 
of acting like the yeast of beer. 
On this occasion I remembered that M. Thenard, on filter- 
ing the juice of the gooseberry which he expressed from the 
fruit through a fine tissue, had collected on his filter a matter 
which contained very nearly the sixth of its weight of fer- 
ment, although it had been subjected to many washings be- 
fore it was tried upon a solution of sugar; thus from this re- 
sult, and those of my observations with the microscope upon 
ferments, there is no room to doubt, that the globules observed 
in the deposit from the juice of the grape, if not wholly, are in 
part formed with the elements contained in the matter of the 
deposit. 
After what I have stated of the reproduction of the globules 
of ferment in the must of porter, it seems hardly to admit of 
doubt; nevertheless a learned physician has objected that, ac- 
cording to M. Milne Edwards, we can, by heating to a suita- 
ble degree the white of egg diluted with water, cause in this 
solution the appearance of globules, which did not before 
exist. It would then be allowable, he added, to suppose that 
ferment is an azotized matter formed by the coagulation of 
some vegeto-animal matter contained in the must of beer, and 
consequently that the globules obtained have no more vital 
organization than those obtained by the aid of white of egg 
and the action of heat. 
To elucidate this subject, I placed on a sand bath, heated to 
