Fermentation and its bearings on the phenomena of disease : a discourse delivered in the City Hall, Glasgow, October 19th 1876 : under the auspices of the Glasgow Science Lectures Association / by John Tyndall.

  • John Tyndall
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fermentation and its bearings on the phenomena of disease : a discourse delivered in the City Hall, Glasgow, October 19th 1876 : under the auspices of the Glasgow Science Lectures Association / by John Tyndall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    wbicli we -live, is its desire and tendency to- connect itself organically with preceding ages—to ascertain Lloav the state of things that now is came to be what it is. Aiid the moro earnestly and profoundly this problem is studied, the more clearly comes into view the vast and varied debt which the world of to-day owes to that fore-world, in which man by skill, valour, and well-dii'ected strength first replenished and subdued the earth. Our pre-historic fathers may have been savages, but they were clever and observant ones. They foimded agriculture by the discovery and development of seeds whose origin is now unkno-\vn. They tamed and har- nessed their animal antagonists, and sent them down to us as ministers, instead of riA^als in the fight for life. Later on, when the claims of luxury ackled themselves to those of necessity, we find the same spirit of invention at work. We have no historic account of the first brewer, but we glean from history that his art was j^ractised, and its produce relished, more than two thousand years ago. Theophrastus, who was born nearly four hundred years before Christ, de- scribed beer as the ivine of barley. It is extremely difficult to preserve beer in a hot coimtiy, stUl, Egyjit was the land in which it was first brewed, the desire of man to quench his thirst Avith this exhilarating beverage overcoming all the obstacles which a hot climate threw in the way of its manufacture. Our remote nncostoT'S had nlso learned by nx]ierioncc that wiiu! makcth glad tlie heni-i, of mnii. No;i-h, wo ure iiif'onuod, planted a vineyard, di'ank of Llie Avinc, and experienced tlio consequences. But, though wine and beer possess so old a history, a very few years ago no man knew the secret of thcu' formation. Indeed, it might be said that until the j)resent year no tliorough and scientific account was eA^er given of the agencies which come into play in the manufac- ture of beer, of the conditions neccssaiy to its healtli, and of the maladies and vicissitudes to Avhich it is subject. Ilithei'- to the art and practice of the brcAver have i-esembleil those of the phy.sician, both being founded on emjiii'ical observa- tion. By this is meant the observation of facts apart from the principles which explain them, and Avhich give the mind an intelligent mastery OA'cr them. The brewer Icai'irt from