he cold of the water, and fell in a liquid fillet into the bottle.
On being tasted, it proved to be that fiery and intoxicating spirit
known in commerce as Kirsch or Kirschwasser.

The cherries, it should be remembered, were left to themselves, no
ferment of any kind being added to them. In this respect what has
been said of the cherry applies also to the grape. At the vintage the
fruit of the vine is placed in proper vessels, and abandoned to its
own action. It ferments, producing carbonic acid; its sweetness
disappears, and at the end of a certain time the unintoxicating
grape-juice is converted into intoxicating wine. Here, as in the case
of the cherries, the fermentation is spontaneous--in what sense
spontaneous will appear more clearly by-and-by.

It is needless for me to tell a Glasgow audience that the beer-brewer
does not set to work in this way. In the first place the brewer deals
not with the juice of fruits, but with the juice of barley. The
barley having been steeped for a sufficient time in water, it is
drained and subjected to a temperature sufficient to cause the moist
grain to germinate; after which, it is completely dried upon a kiln.
It then receives the name of malt. The malt is crisp to the teeth,
and decidedly sweeter to the taste than the original barley. It is
ground, mashed up in warm water, then boiled with hops until all the
soluble portions have been extracted; the infusion thus produced being
called the wort. This is drawn off, and cooled as rapidly as
possible; then, instead of abandoning the infusion, as the wine-maker
does, to its own action, the brewer mixes yeast with his wort, and
places it in vessels each with only one aperture open to the air. Soon
after the addition of the yeast, a brownish froth, which is really new
yeast, issues from the aperture, and falls like a cataract into
troughs prepared to receive it. This frothing and foaming of the wort
is a proof that the fermentation is active.

Whence comes the yeast which issues so copiously from the fermenting
tub? What is this yeast, and how did the brewer become possessed of
it? Examine its quantity before and after fermentation. The brewer
introduces, say 10 cwts. of yeast; he collects 40, or it may be 50,
cwts. The yeast has, therefore, augmented from four to five fold
during the fermentation. Shall we conclude that this additional yeast
has been spontaneously generated by the wort? Are we not rather
reminded o