Note 125 — Chapter VI · THE PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY OF FERMENTATION.

In these studies on plants living immersed in carbonic acid gas, we have come across a fact which corroborates those which we have already given in reference to the facility with which lactic and viscous ferments, and, generally speaking, those which we have termed the disease-ferments of beer, develop when deprived of air, and which shows, consequently, how very marked their aërobian character is. If we immerse beetroots or turnips in carbonic acid gas, we produce well-defined fermentations in those roots. Their whole surface readily permits the escape of the highly acid liquids, and they become filled with lactic, viscous, and other ferments. This shows us the great danger which may result from the use of pits, in which the beetroots are preserved, when the air is not renewed, and that the original oxygen is expelled by the vital processes of fungi, or other deoxidizing chemical actions. We have directed the attention of the manufacturers of beetroot sugar to this point.