may be defined a sensible internal motion of the constituent particles of a moist, fluid, mixed or compound body; by the continuance of which motion, these particles are gradually removed from their former situation or combination, and again, after some visible separation is made, joined together in a different order and arrangement, so that a new compound is formed, having qualities very sensibly different from those of the original fluid.

Fermentation, properly so called, is confined to the vegetable and animal kingdoms; for the effervescences between acids and alkalies, however much they may resemble the fermentation of vinous liquors, are nevertheless exceedingly different. It is divided into three kinds; or rather, there are three different stages of it, viz. the vinous, the acetous, and the putrefactive. To these has been added a fourth, the panary, or the fermentation of bread. Of the first, vegetables alone are susceptible; the flesh of young animals is in some slight degree susceptible of the second (A); but animal substances are particularly susceptible of the third, which vegetables do not so easily fall into without previously undergoing the first and second. The produce of the first stage is wine, or some other vinous liquor; of the second, vinegar; and of the third, ammonia or volatile alkali.

(A) Under the article CHINA, No 115, a fact is mentioned which seems to show that animal substances are likewise capable of the vinous fermentation; viz. that the Chinese make use of a certain liquor called lamb wine, and likewise that they use a kind of spirit distilled from sheep's flesh. This is related on the credit of M. Grolier; but as he does not mention the particulars of the process, we are at liberty to suppose that the flesh of these animals has been mixed with rice, or some other ingredients naturally capable of producing a vinous liquor; so that instead of contributing anything to the fermentation in question, they may in reality be detrimental, and furnish only that strong and disagreeable smell complained of in the liquid.