The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-01-04
N is a DEADLY possoH.
Thaddeus Il. Waitefnna. OF Tie New
YORK sar. Explains q Very INTEREST
Ing Discovery.

o o Is FORMED.
/. That alcohol was the result Of farman-
tation had been observed 9f old, bat how
it resulted was the mystery only Of lata
(within the last fifteen years. fully cleared
up. It is now known that whgt We call
fermentation is caused by the sudden in
crease, by millions on millions. of a little
animal cell, or microbe, oaly visible under
the microscope, and which used to be call
ed the yeast-plant, but which is now digni-
fed by the scientific nam3 36FDHld C8re.
oisi9, which is Latin for the strings or
twists that appear in cereal fermants, that
is, those made from corn or grain, the gift
of the old goddess Ceres. This little fell
low is one OF the most wonderful, aud, if
rightly used, one of the most useful in
habitants of our globe. He is not a plant,
as was at first believed, for he feeds only
on a vegetable substance, viz grape or
fruit sugar, called in chemistry glucose;
and he, in SO ding, gives off carbonic acid
gas, and an excrement which is a sub
stance wholly devitalized by the living
process of the little animal, much as ashes
result from the burning of coal IN a stove.
These breathings and exoretions only re-
suit from animal life, and in every way
this microbo assimilates his sugar-food,
propagates, breathes, excretes, and lives
like an animal; and when dea ! aad ere.
mated smells just like burning animal It's
c-,n Nau- fffs ovarAti.p IF fhic fruit
sugar-eating animal is alcohol. All of the
alcohol Of the world comes from this ani-
NAL in just this way, and in nona other.
1t is always the same substauco, aud has
always the same properties just as salt is
always salt.
AL RIGHT IN BREAD.
These little microbes, or yeast animals,
are in the air and pretty mach everywhere.
They dry up and seem to be dead, aud
float about, but as soon as grape or fruit
sugar (glucose) is exposed they are there.
and the rate of their increase in it is mar.
v%ellous. lie IS the father OF our bread as
well as of our wine. We know him best
as the active agent in the yeast cake,
whence comes the useful fermentation
which lightens our bread previous 20 bak-
ing. A penny yeast cake, dry as a chip,
contains at least 1000. 900 of these animals.
Put in warm dough, and in an hour he
will count over 140, 600, 900! and this in
crease, and his minute carbonic acid gas
breaths, wiilhave made the dough through
out as light as a feather aud ready for
the oven. Therein the heat volatiiizes the
alcohol, which he excreted in the dough,
and the result is that we have light aud
healthy. instead Of heavy, unleavened, in
digestible bread-hut free from alcohol.
Now, wherever glucose (fruit or grape
sugar is found, this fermentation process
caused by this living aud breathing and
propagating process OF this yeast animal
cell goes on, sooner or later. His food,
when from grapejuice, gives rs wine;
when from apples, cider; from pears,
perry; from honey, mctheglin; from
matted grains, beer, etc. In all cases the
starch or cane sugar is changed FIRST to
glucose, and then the yeast cell is set to
work and secretes the alcohol by fermeuta-
ton.
THE CHEMICAL PROCESS.
The process is, in short, this: Glucose
consists O carbon (6 atoms, or eqnigalents),
hydrogen az atons), oxygen O. atoms), or
C6, u12. OG. The yeast animal takes to
feed and warm himself (aesiniiate9) just