Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
April,  1884.  j 
Kephir. 
195 
tissue  and  a  rearrangement  of  its  elements  similar  to  that  which  takes 
place  in  araroba  or  goa  powder;  but  a  careful  anatomical  investigation 
does  not  support  that  view.  It  appears  to  be  a  true  secretion  in  certain 
cells  occupying  the  same  relative  position  throughout  the  root,  and 
unaccompanied  by  any  of  that  breaking  down  of  the  surrounding  cells 
so  marked  in  the  microscopical  investigation  of  araroba. 
The  Perezia  may  prove  a  valuable  medicinal  plant,  but  to  determine 
that  point  there  are  yet  wanting  those  careful  therapeutic  inyestigations 
which  should  precede  the  appearance  in  general  practice  of  any  new 
drug,  a  series  of  well  conducted  experiments  which  very  few  seem 
capable  of  conducting,  and  for  the  results  of  which  still  fewer  have  the 
patience  to  wait. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans. ,  March  1,  1884. 
ON  KEPHIR. 
By  Professor  H.  Struve. 
Translated  from  Berichte  d.  Deutsehen  Chemischen  Gesellschaft,  1884, 
p.  314-316. 
Kephir  is  a  beverage  which  is  prepared  by  a  peculiar  process  of 
fermentation  from  the  milk  of  cows  and  other  animals.  It  has  been 
in  use  from  time  immemorial  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  northern 
declivities  of  the  high  Caucasian  mountain  range,  to  whom  it  possesses 
the  same  importance  as  koumis  does  to  the  nomades  of  the  southeastern 
steppes  of  Russia.  The  last-named  beverage  was  for  the  first  time 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  scientific  world  in  1784,  and  since  then  it 
has  been  frequently  the  subject  of  investigations,  but  only  within  a  few 
decades  has  it  attained  greater  importance  as  a  remedy.  ♦ 
On  the  other  hand,  kephir  was,  even  in  Russia,  totally  unknown 
until  two  years  ago,  although  in  1867  Dr.  Sipowitsh  had  made  a  short 
communication  on  this  subject  to  the  Caucasian  Medical  Society,  which 
remained  buried  in  the  archives  of  the  latter.  Ten  years  later,  in 
1877,  Dr.  Shublowski  published  a  more  detailed  paper  on  kephir 
which,  however,  failed  to  direct  the  attention  of  science  or  that  of  the 
public  towards  this  new  beverage;  the  proper  impulse  was  first  given 
from  Moscow  in  1881,  almost  a  century  after  the  first  notice  of  koumis. 
On  December  1st,  1881,  Ed.  Kern  read  a  paper  before  the' Imperial 
Society  of  Naturalists  at  Moscow  ("  Bull.  Soc.  Imper.  des  Natur.  de 
Moscou,"  1881,  p.  141)  on  "  Kephir,  a  new  milk  ferment  from  the 
