lar form of life. Associated with alcoholic fermentation, there is the yeast-plant; with acetification, the vinegar-plant; and with the decomposition of vinegar, a peculiar kind of mould. We will take the one which is best understood, viz., yeast-plant (saccharomyce), and its relation to alcoholic fermentation.
It is well known that, in connection with alcoholic fermentation, there is a peculiar unicelled plant which grows and multiplies. Fermentation never takes place without the presence of this plant; this plant never grows without producing fermentation, and the rapidity of the fermentation is in exact proportion to the rapidity of the growth of the plant. But, as far as I know, the fact has not been distinctly brought out that the decomposition of the sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid furnishes the force by which the plant grows and multiplies. If the growing cells of the yeast-plant be observed under the microscope, it will be seen that the carbonic-acid bubbles form, and therefore probably the decomposition of sugar takes place only in contact with the surface of the yeast-cells. The yeast-plant not only assimilates matter, but also force. It decomposes the sugar in order that it may assimilate the chemical force set free.
We have already said that the change from starch to sugar, determined by diastase (saccharification), is the only one in connection with which there is no life.
