"To speak here of alcoholic fermentation alone," our author says,
"I hold that in the production of wine it is the juice of the
fruit itself that, in contact with air, produces grains of
ferment, by the transformation of the albuminous matter; Pasteur,
on the other hand, maintains that the fermentation is produced by
germs existing outside of the grapes." [Footnote: As a matter of
fact, M. Fremy applies his theory of hemi-organism, not only to
the alcoholic fermentation of grape juice, but to all other
fermentations. The following passage occurs in one of his notes
(Comptes rendus de l'Academie, t. lxxv., p. 979, October 28th,
1872):
"Experiments on Germinated Barley.--The object of these was to
show that when barley, left to itself in sweetened water,
produces in succession alcoholic, lactic, butyric, and acetic
fermentations, these modifications are brought about by ferments
which are produced inside the grains themselves, and not by
atmospheric germs. More than forty different experiments were
devoted to this part of my work."
Need we add that this assertion is based on no substantial
foundation? The cells belonging to the grains of barley, or their
albuminous contents, never do produce cells of alcoholic ferment,
or of lactic ferment, or butyric vibrios. Whenever those ferments
appear, they may be traced to germs of those organisms, diffused
throughout the interior of the grains, or adhering to the
exterior surface, or existing in the water employed, or on the
side of the vessels used. There are many ways of demonstrating
this, of which the following is one: Since the results of our
experiments have shown that sweetened water, phosphates, and
chalk very readily give rise to lactic and butyric fermentations,
what reason is there for supposing that if we substitute grains
of barley for chalk, the lactic and butyric ferments will spring
from those grains, in consequence of a transformation of their
cells and albuminous substances? Surely there is no ground for
maintaining that they are produced by hemi-organism, since a
medium composed of sugar, or chalk, or phosphates of ammonia,
potash, or magnesia contains no albuminous substances. This is an
indirect but irresistible argument against the hemi-organism
theory.]
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