Page 96 - Ethel D. Hume - Bešam ili Paster: Izgubljeno poglavlje u istoriji biologije

THE "LITTLE BODIES 1 93

ments. Whole healthy grapes, with their stalks attached,
were introduced direct from the vine into boiled sweetened
water, cooled in a current of carbonic acid gas, while the
gas still bubbled into the liquid. Fermentation took place
and was completed in this medium, preserved during the
whole process from the influence of air. The same experi-
ment succeeded when the grapes were introduced into
must, filtered, heated and creosoted.
From these researches it was evident that neither oxygen
nor air-borne organisms were the cause of the fermenta-
tion, but that the grape carried with it the provocative
agents.
Professor Bechamp communicated the results of his
experiments to the Academy of Science in 1864, and
among its Reports the subject may be found exhaustively
treated. 1 He had come to the conclusion that the agent
that causes the must to ferment is a mould that comes
from the outside of the grape, and that the stalks of grapes
and the leaves of vines bear organisms capable of causing
both sugar and must to ferment; moreover, that the fer-
ments borne on the leaves and stalks are sometimes of a
kind to injure the vintage.
The year 1864, when Bechamp presented this Memoir,
marks an era in the history of biological research, for, on
the 4th April, of that self-same year, he read before the
Academy of Science, his explanation of the phenomena of
fermentation. He showed the latter to be due to the pro-
cesses of nutrition of living organisms, that absorption
takes place, followed by assimilation and excretion and
for the first time used the word zymase to designate a
soluble ferment.
It was the following year that M. Duclaux, a pupil of
Pasteur's, tried to cast scorn upon Bechamp's illuminating
explanation, thus supplying documentary proof that his
master had no right to lay claim to having been a pioneer
of this teaching.
Bechamp, who, in 1857, had so conclusively proved air-
1
Comptes Rendus 59, p. 626.