The Invisible Milky Way in a Glass of Wine
A scientific lecture from 1878 explores the 'vital ether' and the microscopic life forces that drive fermentation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The theory of fermentation depends on the physiological activity of microorganisms contained in the liquid. Fermentation, then, is due to the change in the molecular arrangement of a liquid by the movements of the bacteria, which, by multiplying, turning, developing and feeding, represent a measurable amount of energy. If we add to a wine which for fermentation has not commenced an antiseptic, no fermentation takes place. This is in itself abundant proof of the cause of fermentation; since if we are able to destroy the cause so easily, it certainly admits of but little doubt as to its nature. I will now close with the hope that I have laid the subject intelligently before you. Just as the infinite universe is filled with invisible particles of a subtle matter to which physicists give the name of ether, so the infinite universe in which organization unfolds itself is thronged with corpuscles no less invisible, forming what the illustrious Ehrenberg calls the milky way of lower organisms. The theory of spontaneous generation as it is at present cannot be substantiated, but all acknowledge the existence of an all-permeating and all-powerful Force. As there is an ether wanting in life, so there is an ether endowed with life—a vital ether.
“The infinite universe in which organization unfolds itself is thronged with corpuscles no less invisible, forming what the illustrious Ehrenberg calls the milky way of lower organisms.”
While this 1878 lecture reads like a quaint philosophical collision of nascent germ theory and spiritualism, it captures a moment when science was shifting from 'spontaneous generation' to understanding microbiology. Today, we have moved past 'vital ether' to precise biome engineering, yet the human search for the 'all-permeating force' remains a constant in our public discourse.
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