Note 95 — Chapter V · The Alcoholic Ferments.

The term exhaustion (épuisement), which we have just used, was, perhaps, not altogether felicitously chosen. No doubt we exhaust the cells of yeast when we sow an imponderable weight of them in a large quantity of sweetened water; it might, however, be better to say that in such a case we adopt a particular method of preserving the vitality of the cells, without suffering them to die of exhaustion, or to multiply by budding. We may remark that the yeast, in this case, exists in a state of latent life, which resembles that of cells on the surface of fruit. The cells on the surface of fruits, bunches, or barks, can no more find around them sufficient aliment for their propagation than can our yeast-cells in a great excess of sweetened water. We would not, however, say of the spores on the surface of fruits, or their woods, that they are in a state of exhaustion; the term would be misapplied.