The word “fermentation” has undergone many changes in meaning during the past hundred years. According to the derivation of the term, it signifies merely a gentle bubbling or boiling condition. The term was first applied when the only known reaction of this kind was the production of wine, the bubbling, of course, being caused by the production of carbon dioxide.
It was not until Gay-Lussac studied the chemical aspects of the process that the meaning was changed to signify the breakdown of sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide (316). It was Pasteur, however, who marked the birth of chemical microbiology with his association of microbes with fermentation in 1857. He used the terms “cell” and “ferment” interchangeably in referring to the microbe. The term “fermentation” thus became associated with the idea of cells, gas production, and the production of organic byproducts.