Exactly half of the lime in the tartrate employed got used up in the soluble salts formed during fermentation; the other half was partly precipitated in the form of carbonate of lime, partly dissolved in the liquid by the carbonic acid.  The soluble salts seemed to us to be a mixture or combination of 1 equivalent of metacetate of lime, with 2 equivalents of the acetate, for every 10 equivalents of carbonic acid produced, the whole corresponding to the fermentation of 3 equivalents of neutral tartrate of lime. [Footnote:  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, alone 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 50 grammes (767 grains) of tartrate of lime.].  This point, however, is worthy of being studied with greater care:  the present statement of the nature of the products formed is given with all reserve.  For our point, indeed, the matter is of little importance, since the equation of the fermentation does not concern us.

After the completion of fermentation there was not a trace of tartrate of lime remaining at the bottom of the vessel:  it had disappeared gradually as it got broken up into the different products of fermentation, and its place was taken by some crystallized carbonate of lime—­the excess, namely, which had been unable to dissolve by the action of the carbonic acid.  Associated, moreover, with this carbonate of lime there was a quantity of some kind of animal matter, which, under the microscope, appeared to be composed of masses of granules mixed with very fine filaments of varying lengths, studded with minute dots, and presenting all the characteristics of a nitrogenous organic substance. [Footnote:  We treated the whole deposit with dilute hydrochloric acid, which dissolved the carbonate of lime and the insoluble phosphates of calcium and magnesium; afterwards filtering the liquid through a weighed filter paper.  Dried at 100 degrees C. (212 degrees F.), the weight of the organic matter thus obtained was 0.54 gramme (8.3 grains), which was rather more than 1/200 of the weight of fermentable matter.] That this was really the ferment is evident