Called by the Tartars KOUMISS. 185 



he required afliftance to get into the carriage in which he was 

 to be conveyed into Tartary. 



AFTER drinking Koumifsfix weeks only, he returned perfectly 

 free from all the above fymptoms, and was become fo plump 

 and frefh-coloured, that, at firft fight, it was with difficulty his 

 friends could recognife him. As he did not come immediately 

 to Nifcbne-Novogorod, where I then was, he wrote me a letter, 

 the fubftance of which, as far as it related to this fubjecl, I 

 ihall give here. 



AFTER telling me the fudden and remarkable change the 

 Koumifs had produced, during the firft few days ; that he ceafed 

 to be diflurbed in his fleep ; that his nervous and dyfpeptic 

 fymptoms left him ; that he felt as if his vefTels had been 

 diflended with a frefh cooling liquor ; that he became cheerful; 

 that it ferved him both for food and drink j that though he 

 ufed it to the quantity of a gallon and a half, and fometimes 

 even more, in the twenty-four hours, yet he always drank it 

 with pleafure, and without intoxication ; that his body, during 

 its ufe, was regularly open ; but that his urine was fo much in- 

 creafed, that he was ufually excited to make water every hour : 

 He proceeded to exprefs himfelf in the following ftrong terms, 

 which ferves to mow how much he had profited by it. 



" I AM difpofed to confider Koumifs, (fays he) with all defe- 

 " rence to you, as an univerfal medicine, which will cure every 

 " difeafe, if you do not chufe to except fever ; for I am per- 

 " fuaded, that the moft fkilful phyfician, with all the drugs of 

 " the fliop, could not have reflored me to the health I now en-- 



THE next cafe in which it was employed, though not fo def- 

 perate as the former, gave fufHcient proofs of its nutritive and 

 ftrengthening qualities. A lady, who had been witnefs to its 

 uncommon efficacy in the nobleman's cafe above mentioned, 

 was encouraged to try it in her own. It was not convenient for 



A a her 



