On mildew and fermentation / by A. de Bary.

  • Bary, A. de (Anton), 1831-1888.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On mildew and fermentation / by A. de Bary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    substance disappears, because it is burnt to carbonic acidT water and ammoniac, and escapes in tbe surrounding air^ while the relatively small portion of incombustible (mineral) ingredients remains behind as ashes. This putrefaction is generally brought about by a division into new combinations which are more simple than the original organization, but different from those of the last products of decay; this is called putrefaction and fermentation; names which in no way answer to any distinct idea, but merely express a conventional difference in every day life, according to the material which is decomposed, and the qualities of certain decomposing pro- ducts; thus we say, the must ferments, and stale meat pu- trifies. The process of fermentation and putrefaction can be pro- duced in laboratories by many various methods. They can also be brought about in Nature in manifold kinds. But if we observe minutely, we perceive (as we will slightly notice for the present, but later more particularly discuss), that the preponderating number of these processes are actually excited and maintained by the process of vegetation in the Fungi universally found in decomposing materials. Without this activity of the Fungi, the dead animal and vegetable bodies would undergo a slow oxydation, collect together in masses on the surface of the earth, and very soon hinder the exis- tence of life, instead of quickly making room for new gene- rations, and at the same time restoring to the circulation car- bonic acid, water and ammoniac, the nutritious matter of every life. Every species of Fungus has like all other animal and vegetable kinds its peculiar conditions of vegetation; accord- ing to which the different species frequently share among