fest themselves later in its sound neighbors. In these
decayed grapes I find alcohol. I find it also, at least
so I believe, in the dry grapes, and I see there no cells of
yeast. Thence, the idea of my diastase. It may very
well be that this secretion of diastase takes place only
once, and that I came at a fortunate moment, while
you were too early or too late, but that will not hinder
us from remaining good friends.

"Note furthermore," Bernard might have continued
if he had been able to plead his own cause, or if he
had had an advocate, "that my conception is in accord
with some of the experiments which you cite in support
of yours. MM. Lechartier and Bellamy before you
have seen fruits, put in closed flasks in the presence of
air, begin by absorbing oxygen, then give off carbonic
acid, and, furthermore, produce alcohol by an interior
fermentation accomplished without the aid of any yeast
cell. It is one of the experiments which you cite in
support of your ideas of life without air. I consider
it as a score for me, and I say that the results of MM.
Lechartier and Bellamy have to do only with the decay
of fruits in confined atmospheres. But if they were
rotted in contact with the air it would be the same, as
my results with grapes testify, and as, I hope, the
experiments which I intend to make on apples will
also testify."

"But," responded Pasteur, "you who have such a
good memory for the results of MM. Lechartier and
Bellamy who, moreover, are in accord with me, how is it
that you have forgotten my experiments in which,
instead of waiting until they shall have consumed the
oxygen of the air with which they are in contact, I
plunge the fruits immediately into carbonic acid, and
see the formation of alcohol begin there immediately.
Can it be a question of decay in this quick experiment

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