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AGENCY OF MICRO-ORGANISMS IN CARIES. 755
would undergo development when brought in contact with a favor-
able soil.
After this came the brilliant experiments of Pasteur and his colabor-
ers, in which it was conclusively proven that none of the fermentations
or putrefactions could progress without the presence of organic germs,
and that each one of these is dependent on the presence of a special
form of organism peculiar to it, and to none other. Following close on
these discoveries came their application in surgery by Lister, who by
the use of appropriate means for arresting the ingress of micro-organ-
isms succeeded in preventing decomposition in wounds. These results,
most of which have been accomplished Avithin my own lifetime and
memory, have had the effect of almost completely banishing the old
molecular-motion theory of Liebig and substituting the germ theory in
its stead.
The brilliant results of this series of observations are of the greatest
importance in the explanation of the phenomena under consideration.
For this reason the close study of these fermentative processes is of the
utmost importance to those who would gain the most accurate under-
standing of caries of the teeth.
As briefly representing the results of these investigations we may form-
ulate the following propositions
The act of fermentation comprises the physiological processes of life
—namely,
1st. The formation of a solv^ent (which is usually an unorganized fer-
ment, peptonizing agent, or diastase) for the performance of the act of
digestion, or the preparation of food-material for absorption and assimi-
lation.
2d. Assimilation or nutrition, or the act of tissue-building.
3d. The formation of waste products, the act of denutrition, or the
shedding out of material that has once been formed into protoplasm or
used in connection with the process of tissue-building.
4th. The capability of reproduction in a definite line of forms.
The performance of these acts is the condition of the physical existence
of life, and they must be performed by every form of life, no matter
how high or how low in the scale.
As illustrating the physiological processes of fermentation, it is well
to study tiie higher plants (not disregarding the physiological processes
of the higher animals), for the reason that in them certain processes can
be better made out than in the microscopic organisms. For this pur-
pose I have made diligent study of some particular plants that seemed
to giv^e better facilities than others. Among these studies the sprouting
of the grain of corn presents especial facilities for observation in micro-
scopic section. It, as most others, is composed of three natural divis-
ions—the germ, the perigerm, and the starch envelope. The germ is
the embryo plant ; the perigerm (the scutellum of botanists) is the organ
of digestion destined to serve the needs of the germ during its embrv-
onic development ; the starch envelope is a store of food to serve the
young plant until such time as it shall have developed the organs with
which it will be enabled to gather its own food.
Under the influence of warmth and moisture the germ is quickened
AGENCY OF MICRO-ORGANISMS IN CARIES. 755
would undergo development when brought in contact with a favor-
able soil.
After this came the brilliant experiments of Pasteur and his colabor-
ers, in which it was conclusively proven that none of the fermentations
or putrefactions could progress without the presence of organic germs,
and that each one of these is dependent on the presence of a special
form of organism peculiar to it, and to none other. Following close on
these discoveries came their application in surgery by Lister, who by
the use of appropriate means for arresting the ingress of micro-organ-
isms succeeded in preventing decomposition in wounds. These results,
most of which have been accomplished Avithin my own lifetime and
memory, have had the effect of almost completely banishing the old
molecular-motion theory of Liebig and substituting the germ theory in
its stead.
The brilliant results of this series of observations are of the greatest
importance in the explanation of the phenomena under consideration.
For this reason the close study of these fermentative processes is of the
utmost importance to those who would gain the most accurate under-
standing of caries of the teeth.
As briefly representing the results of these investigations we may form-
ulate the following propositions
The act of fermentation comprises the physiological processes of life
—namely,
1st. The formation of a solv^ent (which is usually an unorganized fer-
ment, peptonizing agent, or diastase) for the performance of the act of
digestion, or the preparation of food-material for absorption and assimi-
lation.
2d. Assimilation or nutrition, or the act of tissue-building.
3d. The formation of waste products, the act of denutrition, or the
shedding out of material that has once been formed into protoplasm or
used in connection with the process of tissue-building.
4th. The capability of reproduction in a definite line of forms.
The performance of these acts is the condition of the physical existence
of life, and they must be performed by every form of life, no matter
how high or how low in the scale.
As illustrating the physiological processes of fermentation, it is well
to study tiie higher plants (not disregarding the physiological processes
of the higher animals), for the reason that in them certain processes can
be better made out than in the microscopic organisms. For this pur-
pose I have made diligent study of some particular plants that seemed
to giv^e better facilities than others. Among these studies the sprouting
of the grain of corn presents especial facilities for observation in micro-
scopic section. It, as most others, is composed of three natural divis-
ions—the germ, the perigerm, and the starch envelope. The germ is
the embryo plant ; the perigerm (the scutellum of botanists) is the organ
of digestion destined to serve the needs of the germ during its embrv-
onic development ; the starch envelope is a store of food to serve the
young plant until such time as it shall have developed the organs with
which it will be enabled to gather its own food.
Under the influence of warmth and moisture the germ is quickened
