time, by simply boiling the wort and closing the vessel in which the boiling fluid is contained, in such a way as thoroughly to exclude air; and he shows that, if a little yeast be introduced into such wort, after it is cooled, the wort at once begins to ferment, even though every precaution be taken to exclude air. And this statement has since received full confirmation from Pasteur.
On the other hand, Schwann, Schroeder and Dusch, and Pasteur, have amply proved that air may be allowed to have free access to beer-wort, without exciting fermentation, if only efficient precautions are taken to prevent the entry of particles of yeast along with the air.
Thus, the truth, that the fermentation of a simple solution of sugar in water depends upon the presence of yeast, rests upon an unassailable foundation; and the inquiry into the exact nature of the substance which possesses such a wonderful chemical influence becomes profoundly interesting.
The first step toward the solution of this problem was made two centuries ago by the patient and painstaking Dutch naturalist, Leeuwenhoek, who in the year 1680 wrote thus:
I have frequently examined the ferment of beer, and always observed globules floating through the pellucid liquor; I also noticed very clearly that each single globule of the ferment gave origin to six other distinct globules, which, in size and form, I found, on careful observation, to correspond to the globules of our blood. But I conceived these globules to be due to and formed from the starchy particles of the wheat, barley, oats, etc., dissolved in and mixed with hot water; and in this water, which as it cools may be called beer, numerous minute particles joined together, and formed a globule, the sixth part of the compound globule, and thus the globules formed continuously in sixes.
Thus Leeuwenhoek discovered that yeast consists of globules floating in a fluid; but he thought that they were merely the starchy particles of the grain from which the wort was made, rearranged. He discovered the fact that yeast has a definite structure, but not the meaning of the fact. A century and a half elapsed, and the investigation of yeast was recommenced almost simultaneously by Cagniard de la Tour, in France, and by Schwann and Kützing, in Germany. The French observer was the first to publish his results; and the subject received at his hands and at those of his colleague, the botanist Turpin, full and satisfactory investigation.
The main conclusions at which they arrived are these: The globular, or oval, corpuscles which float so thickly in the yeast as to make it muddy, though the largest are not more than 1/2000 of an inch in diameter, and the smallest may measure less than 1/7000 of an inch, are living organisms. They multiply with great rapidity, by giving off minute buds, which soon attain the size of their parent, and then either become detached or remain united, forming the compound glob-
- ↑ Leeuwenhoek, "Arcana Naturae Detecta." Ed. Nov., 1721.
