If we put some pure tartrate of lime, in the form of a granulated, crystalline powder, into pure water, together with some sulphate of ammonia and phosphates of potassium and magnesium, in very small proportions, a spontaneous fermentation will take place in the deposit in the course of a few days, although no germs of ferment have been added.  A living, organized ferment, of the vibrionic type, filiform, with tortuous motions, and often of immense length, forms spontaneously by the development of some germs derived in some way from the inevitable particles of dust floating in the air or resting on the surface of the vessels or material which we employ.  The germs of the vibrios concerned in putrefaction are diffused around us on every side, and, in all probability, it is one or more of these germs that develop in the medium in question.  In this way they effect the decomposition of the tartrate, from which they must necessarily obtain the carbon of their food without which they cannot exist, while the nitrogen is furnished by the ammonia of the ammoniacal salt, the mineral principles by the phosphate of potassium and magnesium, and the sulphur by the sulphate of ammonia.  How strange to see organization, life, and motion originating under such conditions!  Stranger still to think that this organization, life, and motion are effected without the participation of free oxygen.  Once the germ gets a primary impulse on its living career by access of oxygen, it goes on reproducing indefinitely, absolutely without atmospheric air.  Here then we have a fact which it is important to establish beyond the possibility of doubt, that we may prove that yeast is not the only organized ferment able to live and multiply when out of the influence of free oxygen.

Into a flask, like that represented in fig. 9, of 2.5 litres (about four pints) in capacity, we put: 

Pure, crystallized, neutral tartrate of lime. .. 100 grammes Phosphate of ammonia. ... . ... . .. ... . ... 1 grammes Phosphate of magnesium. ... . ... . ... . ... .. 1 grammes Phosphate of potassium. ... . ... . ... . .. 0.5 grammes Sulphate of ammonia. ... . ... . ... . ... .. 0.5 grammes (1 gramme = 15.43 grains)

To this we added pure distilled water, so as entirely to fill the flask.

In order to expel all the air dissolved in the water and adhering to the solid substances, we first placed our flask in a bath of chloride of calcium in a large cylindrical white iron pot set over a flame.  The exit tube of the flask was plunged in a test tube of Bohemian glass three-quarters full of distilled water, and also heated by a flame.  We boiled the liquids in the flask and test-tube for a sufficient time to expel all the air contained in them.  We then withdrew the heat from under the test-tube, and immediately afterwards covered the water which it contained with a layer of oil and then permitted the whole apparatus to cool down.