ON FERMENTATION,

or

On the inorganic motion of natural bodies.

CHAPTER I.

On the principles of natural things.

A decorative initial letter I is adorned with flowing leaf and floral patterns.
In common philosophy, where natural things are explained by the empty fictions of "Forms" and "Qualities," the word Fermentation occurs quite rarely. Among those of sounder mind, however, especially among the moderns neoterics; a term for early modern scientists and philosophers who favored observation over ancient dogma who observe Matter and Motion as the primary aspects of bodies, almost no term is more frequently used. Moreover, Fermentation is named after "fervescence" original: fervescentia; a boiling or bubbling up, so that a ferment original: fermentum is, as it were, a "boiling-agent" original: fervimentum. This word is most celebrated in bread-making and in the purification of grape juice, beer, and drinkable liquors. From there, it is also applied to other things which are accustomed to swell up in a similar manner. Ultimately, it signifies any effervescence or swelling which is excited in a natural body by the varied agitation of that body's particles.

Bodies suited for fermenting are of diverse consistency and character, namely thin or thick, liquid or solid, living or inanimate, natural or artificial. In all of these, however, a heterogeneity heterogeneity; the state of being composed of different or diverse parts of parts or particles is found. That is to say, there are present certain substances that are extremely agile and always