436 LIQUID PARTS OF ANIMALS. 



the cream does not separate from the colostrum so easily as from 

 ordinary milk. For after having removed the cream, a new por- 

 tion gradually collected on the surface of the milk. Butter 

 made from this second cream was not so yellow as that from the 

 first. When the colostrum is heated it coagulates like albumen. 

 The colostrum of the cow, the ass, and goat was analyzed by 

 Henri and Chevalier.* The result was as follows : 



Cow. Ass. Goat. 



Casein, . 150-7 116-0 245 



Mucus, . 20-0 7-0 30 



Sugar of milk, . trace. 43-0 32 



Butter, . 26-0 5-6 52 



Water, , ;> 803-3 828-4 641 



1000-0 1000-0 1000 



The opinion of medical men is, that the colostrum possesses 

 purgative properties, and that it is intended to free the bowels of 

 the new-born animal from the meconium with which they are 

 partly filled at the time of birth. 



Milk is one of the few animal substances which may be made 

 to undergo the vinous fermentation, and to afford a liquid re- 

 sembling beer, from which alcohol may be separated by distilla- 

 tion. For this property it is indebted to the sugar of milk which 

 it contains, and which, like common sugar and sugar of grapes, 

 is susceptible of being decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid. 

 The method of fermenting milk appears to have been discovered 

 by the Tartars, who obtain all their spirituous liquors from mare's 

 milk. The process followed by them is very simple : The milk 

 is allowed to become sour, it is then raised to the requisite tem- 

 perature. In summer the fermentation begins immediately, and 

 in twenty-four hours the liquid is converted into an intoxicating 

 liquor, to which the Tartars give the name of koumiss or kumysz. 

 In winter the process lasts two or three days, and the koumiss 

 may be kept for two or three months without losing any of its 

 good qualities. It has then an acid, and at the same time a sweet 

 taste, and possesses intoxicating qualities. 



An account of the preparation and medical uses of koumiss 

 was published by Dr Guthrie in the second volume of the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Indeed some ac- 



* Jour, de Pharm. xxv. 348. 



