April 29,1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
865 
of that beverage. True koumiss is prepared from mares’ 
milk by fermentation. It is a piquant, sweetly acidulous 
fragrant liquor, which, when taken in very large quan¬ 
tities , at once produces a pleasurable excitement, without 
any had after effect, owing to a small quantity of alco¬ 
hol which it contains. In the East this alcohol is sepa¬ 
rated by distillation into a liquor, which is called 
‘aracu.’ This latter, however, differs from the koumiss 
in being an intoxicating liquor of the most injurious 
kind. Emaciated by their meagre rations of smoked 
meat during the long and rigid winters, the Tartars hail 
the approach of spring with great rejoicing, because it 
brings back to them the season of koumiss. The 
meadows, warmed and vivified by the thick snows of the 
winter, now bloom forth in luxurious pastures to restore 
the drooping bodies of the half-starved mares; and the 
poor animals, once more natural in blood and flesh, give 
abundantly of milk to make the koumiss, which serves 
in turn to nourish and invigorate their masters. It is 
the grateful feeling wfliich is natural to this change 
from a bare subsistence to one of wholesome plenty that 
inspires the Tartars to reverence koumiss as of ‘ Divine 
origin.’ 
It should be here remarked that the mares of the 
Steppes are a hardy race of animals, and it not unfre- 
quently happens that one of a drove which may drop her 
foal during the march will be able, with her colt, to re¬ 
sume the journey two hours afterwards. When the colt 
is weaned, the mare can only be induced to yield her 
milk by a ruse , which consists in making the colt stand 
by the side of the milker, and if the colt has been taken 
away, then it must be simulated by a stuffed dummy. 
The daily product of a good mare is two or three litres 
of milk, but only when the mare is milked frequently, 
say at intervals of every four hours. 
Mare’s milk assimilates closely in composition with 
woman’s milk ; and qualitatively it is not different from 
cow’s milk, but it contains more of sugar (lactose) and 
less of butter and caseine than the latter. Mare’s milk 
has a peculiarity which distinguishes two other kinds 
only, viz. those of the ass and the woman, and that is, 
rennet scarcely coagulates it. 
Milks in general consist of 84 per cent, to 95 per cent, 
of water, and 16 per cent, to 5 per cent, of solid matters. 
The solid portion is made up of lactose, butter, caseine, 
albumen and mineral salts. The mineral salts consist 
chiefty of alkaline and earthy chlorides and phosphates. 
In addition, there are traces of various other consti¬ 
tuents, some of which are doubtful. Although the milks 
of different animals resemble each other in quality, they 
are quite at variance as to the quantitative relations of 
their components ; that is, in other words, species, race, 
and season, mode of employment, and, measurably, the 
kind of food, are controlling influences on this point. 
The following table will show the average composition 
of the more important kinds of milk:—- 
W oman 
Cow. 
Goat. 
Sheep. 
Ass. 
Mare. 
Sugar . . . 
4-8 
4'6 
43 
5-4 
6-4 
7-3 
Butter . . . 
2-9 
3-6 
3-4 
2-4 
1*3 
2-1 
Cheesy Matter. 
2-0 
5-1 
4-4 
4-8 
1-9 
}l-0 
Salts .... 
2-21 
0-6 
0-8 
0-9 
—- 
Total . . . 
10-9 
13-9 
12-9 
13-5 
9-6 
10-9 
It will thus be seen that the milk of the ass and the 
mare are nearly alike as to the proportion of butter and 
caseine, and very nearly similar in the same respect to 
that of the woman; but the amount of sugar in woman’s 
milk is much less than in either of the two others. 
Doubtless, therefore, it is the large proportion of sugar 
which these three contain that renders them pre-emi¬ 
nently suitable for the manufacture of koumiss; and of 
the three, mare’s milk is the most favourable. But the 
reasons which cause cow’s milk and sheep’s milk to be less 
adapted for koumiss making have not yet been deter¬ 
mined ; possibly it may be owing to the greater amount 
of caseine, and some peculiarity of physical condition. 
Be that as it may, my own studies and experiments have 
enabled me to surmount all the practical difficulties in 
this connection, and to produce a koumiss which, for all 
therapeutic purposes, is the counterpart of that from 
mare’s milk. By the skill thus acquired, I am also 
enabled to make koumiss of different modifications, as 
may be required for different diseases. This art of sub¬ 
stitution enables us to have koumiss at our own homes : 
whereas it would be compulsory otherwise to go and 
drink it on the steppes of distant Tartary, as nowhere 
else are the mares in that requisite number and con¬ 
dition for being milked advantageously. The manipu¬ 
lations are of a nice character, and require experience 
and attention. 
[To be continued.') 
NOTE ON AMYLO-NITROU8 ETHER. 
13Y JOHX M. MAISCH. 
Mr. C. Umney* has recently examined three speci¬ 
mens of nitrite of amyl as met with in the English 
market, and found them all to be impure, one containing 
in fact very little of the true nitrite. This new remedial 
agent has also attracted some attention in this country ; 
to what extent it is made here I have no means of ascer¬ 
taining, nor am I prepared to give an opinion of the 
piu-ity of the few samples I have seen. Since, however, 
its preparation is rather tedious, and since it is very apt 
to be contaminated with other ethers, the requisite care 
and precautions are probably not always applied. 
Having had occasion, some time since, to prepare it 
repeatedly for medicinal purposes, the following remarks 
are offered as indicating a way of making nitrite of 
amyl on a convenient scale. Mr. Umney prefers the 
process of passing nitrous (hyponitric) acid into amylic 
alcohol. I regard this process as unnecessarily compli¬ 
cated, since purification by fractional distillation cannot 
be avoided, as demonstrated already by Rieckher.f Ac¬ 
cording to Bunge, J 5| oz. amylic alcohol require from 
eight to nine hours, before becoming completely sat i- 
rated with nitrous acid; volatile products are given 
off, and the residue contains nitrite and valerianate or. 
amyl, besides a black non-volatile body, crystals of 
nitrate of ammonia and probably nitrate of amyl. The 
process which was first suggested in 1844 by Balard, it 
seems to me, will answer all requirements, if the obser¬ 
vations of W. Hoffmann^ regarding the formation of 
nitrate of amyl are not disregarded; ethyl-amylic ether, 
amylic aldehyde and hydrocyanic acid are likewise 
formed. 
Of the three last-named compound's, the hydrocyanic 
acid is readily removed from the distillate by treatment 
with an alkali, which also separates any nitrous and 
nitric acid that may have come over. The aldehyde has its 
boiling-point at 9-3° C. (Kopp), and the ether above 110° 
C. These figures indicate the necessity of the cautels re¬ 
commended by Balard, Hoffmann, Rieckher, etc. 
It is advisable to use only rectified amylic alcohol, 
since the previous removal of ethylic alcohol is much 
easier than the removal of the products after the reaction 
with the nitric acid has been completed. This purifica¬ 
tion is most, readily and economically effected by Hirsch’s 
method, || with solution of table salt and subsequent dis¬ 
tillation with water. 
The purified amylic alcohol with about an equal bulk 
of nitric acid is introduced into a capacious glass retort, 
* Piiarm. Journ. and Transactions, 1870, p. 422. 
f Jahrb. f. pr. Chem. vol. xiv. p. 1. 
£ Krit. Zeitschr. vol. ix. p. 34. 
§ Aim. Ckcm. und PLuirm, vol. lxxv. p. 303. 
|| See Arner. Jour. Pluirm.^ 1802, p. 139, 328. 
