Note 138 — Chapter VI · THE PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY OF FERMENTATION.
Frank Faulkner translation
The following is a curious consequence of these numbers and of the nature of the products of this fermentation. The carbonic acid liberated being quite pure, especially when the liquid has been boiled to expel all air from the flask, and capable of perfect solution, it follows that, the volume of liquid being sufficient and the weight of tartrate suitably chosen—we may set aside tartrate of lime in an insoluble, crystalline powder, along with phosphates at the bottom of a closed vessel full of water, and find soon afterwards in their place carbonate of lime, and, in the liquid, soluble salts of lime, with a mass of organic matter at the bottom, without any liberation of gas or appearance of fermentation ever taking place, except as far as the vital action and transformation in the tartrate are concerned. It is easy to calculate that a vessel or flask of five litres (rather more than a gallon) would be large enough for the accomplishment of this remarkable and singularly quiet transformation, in the case of fifty grammes (767 grains) of tartrate of lime.