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llliNUFACTURING AND ADULTERATING LIQUORS.
27
moisture, is excited by the contact of all bodies, the
element.s of which are in a state of active decom–
position or fermentation.
"In
nitrogenized sub–
stances of a very complex construction, fermentation
is spontaneously established when water is present,
and the temperature sufficiently high, and it con–
tinues till the original compounds are wholly de–
stroyed. Substances destitute of nitrogen, on the
contrary, require, in order to their undergoing this
metamorphosis, the presence of nitrogenized sub–
stance already in a state of fermentation." The sub–
stances which promote this change are termed fer–
ments ; and among these, the principal are gliadine,
gluten, vegetable albumen, and all substances
in
a
state of spontaneous decomposition. Yeast, the fer–
ment most commonly employed for inducing the
vinous fermentation, is such a substance in an ac–
tive state of decomposition, and whose atoms are in
continual motion.
Chemist.s divide fermentation into five different
processes, viz.: lst. The
sacclw1ri1nefermen'tation,
by
which starch and gum are converted into sugar.
2d. The
alcoholic
or
virioUB/ermen'tation,
by which
sugar is converted into alcohol. 3d. The
viscOUB
or
mucilagin<Yus /ermen'tation,
which converts sugar
into mucilage, instead of alcohol. 4th. The
acetoua
/ermenta&Wn,
by which alcohol is converted into
Digitized
by