Chap. XII Of Fermentation in General
By Fermentation is meant an intestine motion, which, arising spontaneously among the insensible parts of a body, produces a new disposition and a different combination of those parts.
To excite a Fermentation in a mixt body, it is necessary, first, that there be in the composition of that mixt a certain proportion of watery, saline, oily, and earthy parts: but this proportion is not yet sufficiently ascertained. Secondly, it is requisite that the body to be fermented be placed in a certain degree of temperate heat: for much cold obstructs fermentation; and too much heat decomposes bodies. Lastly, the concurrence of the air is also necessary to fermentation.
All vegetable and animal substances are susceptible of Fermentation, because all of them contain in a due proportion the principles above specified. However, many of them want the proper quantity of water, and cannot ferment while they remain in such a state of dryness. But it is easy to supply that defect, and so render them very apt to ferment.
With respect to minerals properly so called, (that is, excluding such vegetable and animal substances as may have lain long buried in the earth), they are not subject to any Fermentation; at least, that our senses can perceive.
There are three sorts of Fermentation, distinguished from one another by their several productions. The first produces wines and spirituous liquors; for which reason it is called the Vinous or Spirituous Fermentation: the result of the second is an acid liquor; and therefore it is called the Acetous Fermentation: and the third generates an alkaline salt; which, however, differs from the alkaline salts hitherto treated of, in this respect chiefly, that, instead of being fixed, it is extremely volatile: this last sort takes the name of the Putrid or Putrefactive Fermentation. We shall now consider these three sorts of Fermentation and their effects a little more particularly.
These three sorts of Fermentation may take place successively in the same subject; which proves them to be only three different degrees of fermentation, all proceeding from one and the same cause, rather than three distinct fermentations. These degrees of fermentation always follow the order in which we have here placed them.