22 
Kefir  and  Its  Preparation. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
X    January.  1908. 
wysocki.of  Riga,  explains  as  follows  :  The  koumys-forming  ferment 
was  known  in  times  immemorial  as  history  shows.  When,  how- 
ever, the  tribes  occupied  as  horse- raisers  and  traders  of  the  plains 
were  compelled  to  migrate  into  the  mountains,  owing  to  the  different 
condition  of  the  soil  and  geographical  distribution  they  were  obliged 
to  raise  more  bovine  cattle  than  horses,  which  fact  caused  a  shortage 
of  mare's  milk.  The  next  step  was  to  add  the  koumys  ferment  to  a 
mixture  of  cow's  and  mare's  milk.  As  the  outgrowth  of  this  in  time 
the  koumys  ferment  acquired  a  different  form  and  composition,  and 
such  we  now  call  "  kefir  grains." 
This  theory  Professor  Podwysocki  further  augments  by  the  state- 
ment that  outside  of  the  Caucasus  neither  in  Switzerland  nor  any 
other  mountainous  localities  were  the  cattle-raisers  fortunate  in 
arriving  at  the  kefir  ferment ;  and  by  the  fact  that  the  most  select 
koumys  can  only  be  prepared  from  mare's  milk  when  ke'ir  grains  are 
employed,  and  not  with  yeast  as  ordinarily  practised. 
When  Kefir  grains  are  added  to  cow's  milk  two  kinds  of  fermenta- 
tion occur — alcoholic  and  lactic.  Besides  this,  they  peptonize 
albuminous  substances,  giving  rise  to  physiologically  highly  bene- 
ficial compounds. 
The  main  components  of  kefir  may  be  classed  as  fat,  lactose, 
alcohol,  carbondioxid,  lactic  acid  (which  should  not  exceed  0.7  to  I 
per  cent.),  inorganic  salts,  and  albuminous  bodies  which  exist  here 
as  casein,  albumin,  acidalbumin,  hemalbumose  and  peptone.  \ 
The  comparative  analyses  of  cow's  milk  and  twenty-four  hours  old 
kefir  prepared  therefrom  are  highly  interesting  and  instructive : 
In  parts  per  hundred. 
Kefir. 
Cow's  milk. 
 1*032 
1-030 
 4*150 
4*080 
 o-68o 
traces. 
4'923 
37oi 
0*622 
 Slightly 
Slightly 
acid. 
alkaline. 
