MILK 215 



mentation continues. Made and propagated in this way, foreign 

 bacteria becomes mingled with the essential bacteria of the grains, 

 and abnormal and frequently disagreeable flavors result. When the 

 milk is drawn off, in order to prevent the escape of gas, a string is. 

 first tied around the neck of the leather bottle, so that the small part 

 wanted for use is held between the stricture and the opening. In the 

 villages and the low country kefir is made in open earthen or wooden 

 vessels and most of the gas escapes. Small, yellowish, convoluted 

 masses are observed in kefir, which are called seeds or "grains." 



Kumiss. The missionary monks and other wanderers who first 

 penetrated the undulating, treeless plains of European Russia and 

 central and southwestern Asia brought back descriptions of a fer- 

 mented drink which in the light of more recent investigations is 

 easily recognized as kumiss. These vast prairies are inhabited by 

 tribes of nomads who live in squalid huts or tents in the winter and 

 wander during the summer, seeking pasture for their horses, their 

 herds of cattle, or flocks of sheep. They are all horsemen, and by a 

 process of selection in which they have probably played only a 

 passive part have developed an exceptionally hardy race of horses. 

 The mares give much more than the ordinary amount of milk, which 

 constitutes almost the entire food of the people during the summer. 

 This is never used in the fresh condition, but is fermented to make 

 kumiss. Unlike kefir, there is no dried ferment, seeds, or grains 

 with which the fermentation of the mare's milk is started. It is the 

 practice of the natives, when it becomes necessary to establish the 

 fermentation anew, to add to milk some fermenting or decaying 

 matter, such as a piece of flesh, tendon, or vegetable matter. What- 

 ever the material used to supply the essential organisms, it is evi- 

 dent that the milk is so cared for that a combination of an acid and 

 an alcoholic fermentation is favored and the necessary bacteria and 

 yeasts are soon established. No doubt the change in the milk is 

 produced under different circumstances by different combinations 

 of bacteria and yeasts, and there are usually present various con- 

 taminating organisms which are detrimental or at least are not 

 essential to the production of the kumiss. Native kumiss makers 

 lay great stress on the quality of the milk, the breed of the mares, 

 and the condition of the pastures; but it is probable that their 

 troubles ascribed to variations in these conditions are more likely due 

 to imperfectly controlled bacteriological factors. 



There was at one time much interest in kumiss as a therapeutic 

 agent in the treatment of tuberculosis, and sanatoria were estab- 

 lished in Russia where invalids could be given this treatment. It is 

 probable that the benefits, real or imaginary, derived from this treat- 

 ment came more from the general methods, which corresponded 

 somewhat to present practices, than to the action of kumiss. 



Kumiss is often made and offered for sale in this country, but 

 as this is usually made from cow's milk, it is, more correctly, kefir. 



Yoghurt, etc. In passing to a consideration of the fermented 

 milks used by the people of the countries bordering on the eastern 

 end of the Mediterranean we find a preparation very distinct from 



