Koumiss, or Fermented Mare's Milk, and Its Uses in the Treatment and Cure of Pulmonary Consumption and Other Wasting Diseases (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1881. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX. ON THE FERMENTATION OF COWS MILK. It was but natural to expect that those patients who derived benefit from drinking koumiss in the steppes, should have desired to continue the treatment when they got home. As the great majority of them were unable to obtain mare's milk for the purpose, they fixed upon cow's as the easiest procurable, if not the best, substitute. And although several modern physicians and laymen have laboured under the impression that they had made a great discovery in using cow's milk instead of mare's for fermentation, and have not only contented themselves with calling it koumiss, but have actually asserted that it is letter,1 because richer, than mare's, it should be remembered that Dr Pallas, in the last century, speaks of the Tartars fermenting cow's milk when mare's fails them.1 1 Thus Dr Jagielski considers "cow's milk an equally good raw material, if not better than mare's milk, for the preparation of koumiss" (British Med. Journ., February 21, 1874); while Dr Landowsky regards "the richness of cow's milk as advantageous (when compared with mare's) to the sick, who absorb a larger quantity of nutritive material."--(The italics are mine.) Journal de Therapeutique, 1875, p. 698. When skimmed, however, diluted with a certain percentage of water, and with a given quantity of sugar (lactine being preferable) added thereto, cow's milk can be very easily and successfully subjected to fermentation. Of course the process will not alter the chemical nature of the casein, or of the fat of cow's milk, which will continue to differ essentially from mare's. Still, cow's milk, by dilution, abstraction, and addition, may be made closely to resemble mare's in regard to the quantity, if not the quality, of its component parts. It is, or ought t...