Note 130 — Chapter VI · THE PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY OF FERMENTATION.

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’Académie, 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 their exterior surface, or existing in the water employed, or on the sides 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 or 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.