magnesia contains no albuminous substances. This is an indirect but irresistible argument against the hemi-organism theory. Footnote 131: PASTEUR, _Mémoire sur la fermentation alcoolique_, 1860; _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_. The word _globules_ is here used for _cells_. In our researches we have always endeavoured to prevent any confusion of ideas. We stated at the beginning of our Memoir of 1860, that: “We apply the term _alcoholic_ to that fermentation which sugar undergoes under the influence of the ferment known as _beer yeast_.” This is the fermentation which produces wine and all alcoholic beverages. This, too, is regarded as the type for a host of similar phenomena, designated, by general usage, under the generic name of _fermentation_, and qualified by the name of one of the essential products of the special phenomenon under observation. Bearing in mind this fact in reference to the nomenclature that we have adopted, it will be seen that the expression _alcoholic fermentation_ cannot be applied to every phenomenon of fermentation in which alcohol is produced, inasmuch as there may be a number of phenomena having this character in common. If we had not at starting defined that particular one amongst the number of very distinct phenomena, which, to the exclusion of the others, should bear the name _alcoholic fermentation_, we should inevitably have given rise to a confusion of language that would soon pass from words to ideas, and tend to introduce unnecessary complexity into researches which are already, in themselves, sufficiently complex to necessitate the adoption of scrupulous care to prevent their becoming still more involved. It seems to us that any further doubt as to the meaning of the words _alcoholic fermentation_, and the sense in which they are employed, is impossible, inasmuch as Lavoisier, Gay-Lussac, and Thénard have applied this term to the fermentation of sugar by means of beer yeast. It would be both dangerous and unprofitable to discard the example set by those illustrious masters, to whom we are indebted for our earliest knowledge of this subject. Footnote 132: See, for example, the communications of MM. Colin and Poggiale, and the discussion on them, in the _Bulletin de l’Académie de Médicine_, March 2nd, 9th, and 30th, and February 16th and 23rd, 1875. Footnote 133: We have elsewhere determined the formation of minute quantities of volatile acids in alcoholic fermentation. M. Béchamp, who studied these, recognized several belonging to the series of fatty acids, acetic acid, butyric acid, &c. “The presence of succinic acid is not accidental, but constant; if we put aside volatile acids that form in quantities which we may call infinitely small, we may say that succinic acid is the only normal acid of alcoholic fermentation.” PASTEUR, _Comptes rendus de l’Académie_, t. xlvii. p. 224, 1858. Footnote 134: