CAROLINE.
But if bread undergoes the acetous fermentation, why is it not sour?
MRS. B.
It acquires a certain savour which corrects the heavy insipidity of flour, and may be reckoned a first degree of acidification; or if the process were carried further, the bread would become decidedly acid.
There are, however, some chemists who do not consider the fermentation of bread as being of the acetous kind, but suppose that it is a process of fermentation peculiar to that substance.
The putrid fermentation is the final operation of Nature, and her last step towards reducing organised bodies to their simplest combinations. All vegetables spontaneously undergo this fermentation after death, provided there be a sufficient degree of heat and moisture, together with access of air; for it is well known that dead plants may be preserved by drying, or by the total exclusion of air.
CAROLINE.
But do dead plants undergo the other fermentation previous to this last; or do they immediately suffer the putrid fermentation?
MRS. B.
That depends on a variety of circumstances, such as the degrees of temperature and of moisture, the nature of the plant itself, &c. But if you were carefully to follow and examine the decomposition of plants from their death to their final dissolution, you would generally find a sweetness developed in the seeds, and a spirituous flavour in the fruits (which have undergone the saccharine fermentation), previous to the total disorganisation and separation of the parts.