2o6 MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS PART 



This yeast differs markedly from the ordinary beer and wine 

 yeasts. The fourth organism is a bacillus, Dispora caucasica 

 (Kern 1 ) or Bacillus caucasicus, as v. Freudenreich names it. 

 What part is played by this bacillus in the kephir fermenta- 

 tion has not yet been satisfactorily determined. None of the 

 above-mentioned micro-organisms is alone able to bring about 

 the kephir fermentation, but it requires milk to be inoculated 

 with all four at the same time. Thus there is clearly a true 

 symbiosis amongst the four different organisms. 



E. J. Nikolajevva, 2 who has more recently investigated this 

 subject, finds that only two micro-organisms are essential for 

 the specific kephir fermentation, and these are Bacillus 

 caucasicus and the lactose fermenting yeast to which the name 

 Torula kephir is given. This investigator was able to prepare 

 kephir with the help of those two organisms alone. The 

 Bacillus caucasicus forms the stroma of the kephir grains. 



Hammarsten 8 gives the following details as to the composi- 

 tion of kephir : 



Kephir from the same milk. 

 4 days old. 6 days old. 



Water 88 '64 per cent. 89 '00 per cent. 



Fat .. 3-63 3-63 



Casein 2 -59 



Albumin 0'41 



Peptone 0*09 



Sugar 2-38 



Salts 0-62 



Lactic acid 0'83 



Alcohol .. 0-81 



2-56 

 0-39 

 0-12 

 1-67 

 0-63 

 0-90 

 1-10 



100-00 100-00 



Koumiss, which, as previously mentioned, is usually prepared 

 from mare's milk, resembles kephir in many respects, but it 

 has not come into such general use. Old or dried koumiss is 

 taken as the inciter of fermentation, which is also due to a 

 symbiosis of several different micro-organisms (a lactic acid 

 bacterium, a yeast, and a bacillus). The microbiology of 

 koumiss fermentation is, however, not yet laid clear. 4 



Fleischmann 5 gives the following composition to a six to 

 eight days' old koumiss prepared from mare's milk : 



1 Bull, de la Soc. Imp. des Naturalistes de MosTcou, 1881, No. 3. Biol. 

 Centralblatt, Vol. II, p. 137. 



2 Bull, du Jardin Imp. Botanique de St. Petersburg, 1907, No. 4. 



3 Upsala Idkarforen. forhandl, Vol. XXI, 1886, p. 255. 



4 Schipin, Centralblatt fur Bakt. Section 2, 1900, Vol. VI, p. 775. 



5 Lehrbuch der Milchivirtschaft. Fourth Edition. Leipsic, 1907, p. 407. 



