"IN

N an age like the prefent, when few things in nature feem to have eluded the refearches of philofophy, when the communications of learning are as well eftablifhed as thofe of commerce, it may appear fomewhat furprizing, that one of the most important productions of milk should still remain, in a great meafure, unknown to the most enlightened parts of Europe.

The production I mean is the vinous liquor which is procured by fermentation from mares milk. And it was scarcely to be expected, that, after it had escaped the obfervation of men the moft fkilled in chemiftry, it should be taught us by a horde of Tartars, whofe rank in fociety is not above that of Barbarians.

Even in Ruffia itself, it was with difficulty I could learn the particulars of the preparation; and though it has been used, for fome ages, by feveral tribes of people who belong to that empire, yet, in the year 1781, when I first began to think of employing it in medicine, it was as little known in what may be called Ruffia proper, as it is now in Great Britain. If the academicians of St. Petersburgh gave fome accounts of it, thefe ac

counts have never excited the attention of the phyficians of Ruffia.

This neglect is most probably to be afcribed, partly to the obfcure relations of travellers, and partly to the pride of fyftem, which men of learning are too often apt to indulge, in rejecting as incredible whatever does not coincide with their own preconceived opinions.

Oa confulting the authors who have made mention of this fubject, I find, that they give little fatiffactory information concerning it. They all agree, that a vinous liquor, from mares milk, was used by fome of the Tartar nations, under the name of Koumifs; but none of them enter into a detail of the procefs by which that wine was prepared, much lefs does any one of them point out the purposes, either in economy or medicine, to which it may be applied.

Marcus Paulus Venetus gives fome account of it in his Hiftory of the Eastern Nations which was published as long ago as the thirteenth century. He says, it was ufed by the Tartars as their common beverage, but makes no mention of the method of preparing it.

Strahlenberg, in his defcription of the Ruffian empire †, relates fome circumftances of the preparation; but his method, if followed, could not be attended with success; for he mentions, that the Kalmucks take off the thick fubftance, which, in confequence of fouring, rifes to the top of the milk, and employ this in their food, while they use the remaining liquor either for

drink or diftillation. Now, this is not only contrary to the ufage of that people, when they wish to obtain a fermented liquor of any trength; but experience proves, that no perfect fermentation can be produced, unless all the parts of the milk be left united in their natural portion.

Gmelin, in his hiftory of a tour which he made through Siberia *, pays more attention to the Tartar method of diftilling a fpirit from the wine of milk, than to the fermenting process by which that wine is procured.

The latest writer that I find mentioning Koumifs, is the celebrated profeffor of natural history in St. Petersburgh, Dr. Pallas +. His account is as circumftantial as could well be expected from a traveller, whofe object was natural history in general; yet the principles on which the fermentation depends, as well as the mode of conducting the procefs, are not fufficiently explained in his work.

Thefe accounts, however imperfect, might have led philofophers, long before this time, to a difcovery of the true method of fermenting milk, had not the writings. of Newman 1, an eminent German chemist, contributed to deceive them. He was himself impofed upon by one Lucas, a Dominican monk, who afcribed its fermentation to the flour of millet and the grains of barley, which, he faid, the Tartars added to it, and to the

wine cafk in which the operation was performed. Newman, it would feem, was unwilling to admit of the fermentability of milk, because it was contrary to the ideas he had entertained of an animal liquor; and, therefore, adopting the oppofite opinion, he feems glad to have an authority, however weak, to fupport it.

Voltelen § too, a chemist of Holland, affords a ftriking example, how eafily men are misled, even in matters of fcience, by their own prejudices. He had no doubt of the existence of a fermentable principle in milk, inafmuch as it contained a certain quantity of a faccharine fubftance. He knew alío, that the whey contained the fugar in folution; it was on it, therefore, that he inftituted his experiments; he added even more fugar to the whey than the natural proportion; but no vinous fermentation could, by any means, be produced in it. Nor did even his want of fuccefs undeceive him. He never once imagined, that the butyraceous and cafeous parts of the milk were no lefs neceffary to its fermentation than the faccharine and ferous.

Even Macquer, in his Chemical Dictionary, has fallen into an error of the fame kind. Speaking of whey, he fays, " In whey is "contained diffolved, a confide. "rable quantity of extractive sub"ftance, of the nature of the fac

66

charine juices, and it is accordingly fufceptible of the fpiritu

P.

18.

"ous fermentation. The Tartars "certainly make from it a fpi"rituous drink, or kind of wine." From this it appears he had not made the experiment.

The following method of making Koumifs, is that which I adopted in my own practice with fuccefs. It is common among the Baschkir Tartars, who inhabit that part of the government of Orenbourg which lies between the rivers Kama and Volga. It was communicated to me by a Ruffian nobleman, in whofe case I was consulted, and who was the first who made use of it by my advice. He went into that country on purpose to drink it; and, as he refided for fome time there, he could not be mistaken with respect to the process.

Take of fresh mares milk, of one day, any quantity; add to it a fixth part of water, and pour the mixture into a wooden veffel; use then, as a ferment, an eighth part of the foureft cows milk that can be got; but, at any future preparation, a fmall portion of old Koumifs will better answer the purpose of fouring; cover the veffel with a thick cloth, and fet it in a place of moderate warmth; leave it at reft twenty-four hours, at the end of which time, the milk will have become four, and a thick substance will be gathered on the top; then, with a stick, made at the lower end in the manner of a churnftaff, beat it, till the thick fubftance above mentioned be blended intimately with the fubjacent fluid: In this fituation, leave it again at reft for twenty-four hours more; after which, pour it into a higher and narrower vessel, resembling a churn, where the agitation must be repeat

ed, as before, till the liquor appear to be perfectly homogeneous; and, in this ftate, it is called Koumifs; of which the tafte ought to be a pleasant mixture of fweet and four. Agitation must be employed every time before it be used."

To this detail of the procefs, he fubjoined, that in order to obtain milk in fufficient quantity, the Tartars have a cuftom of feparating the foal from the mare during the day, and allowing it to fuck during the night. And, when the milk is to be taken from the mare, which is generally about five times a-day, they always produce the foal, on the fuppofition, that fhe yields her milk more copiously when it is prefent.

To the above method of making Koumifs, which I have tranflated as literally as poffible from the original Ruffian manufcript now in my poffeffion,I will add fome particulars, taken from other communications with which I was favoured by Tartars themselves. For though I think no addition neceffary to render it either more fimple or more intelligible, yet I think it my duty to with-hold nothing which may, in any wife, throw light on fo effential a part of my subject.

According to the account of a Tartar, who lived to the fouth-east of Orenbourg, the proportion of milk and fouring ought to be the fame as above; only, to prevent changing the veffel, the milk may be put at once into a pretty high and narrow veffel; and, in order to accelerate the fermentation, fome warm milk may be added to it, and, if neceffary, more fouring.

From a Tartar, whom I met with at the fair of Macarieff upon the

Volga, and from whom I purchased one of the leathern bags which are used by the Kalmucks for the preparation and carriage of their Koumifs, I learned, that the procefs may be much fhortened by heating the milk before the fouring be added to it, and as soon as the parts begin to separate, and a thick fubftance to rife to the top, by agitating it every hour, or oftener. In this way, he made fome in my prefence in the space of twelve hours. I learned alfo, that it was common, among fome Tartars, to prepare it in one day during fummer, and that with only two or three agitations; but that in winter, when, from a deficiency of mares milk, they are obliged to add a great proportion of that of cows, more agitation and more time are neceffary. And though it is commonly used within a few days after the preparation, yet, when well fecured in clofe veffels, and kept in a cold place, that it may be preferved for three months, or even more, without any injury to its qualities.

He faid farther, that the acid fermentation might be produced by four milk, as above, by a four pafte of rye-flour, by the rennet of a lamb's ftomach, or, what is more common, by a portion of old Koumifs; and that, in fome places, they faved much time, by adding the new milk to a quantity of that

already fermented, on being mixed with which, it very foon undergoes the vinous change. It was according to the firft process, however, that all the Koumifs which I have employed in medicine was prepared.

From all these accounts, it ap pears, that three things are effential to the vinous fermentation of milk. These are heat, fouring, and agitation. Heat is neceffary to every fpecies of fermentation, and fouring is perhaps not lefs fo, though not in fo fenfible a degree as in the prefent cafe; but the chief art of fermenting milk confifts in agitation. This laft circumftance has wholly efcaped the attention of chemifts, notwithstanding it appears to be confonant to the operations of nature in other fpecies of fermentation. In fermenting vegetable juices and infufions, nature has no need of the affiftance of art; the inteftine motion which accompanies the fermentation is fufficient to produce the degree of agitation which feems neceffary to keep the parts of the fluid in mutual contact, or to fit them for mutual action. Milk, on the contrary, is no fooner foured than a feparation of its parts takes place; the cream rifes to the top, while the cheefe either falls to the bottom, or is fufpended in the whey. When these parts are brought, however, into close contact with one another, by agitation, and this re

From the time I had heard of Koumifs, I had conceived an opinion of its importance in the cure of certain diseases. I judged, that a preparation of milk, which could not be curdled by the juices of the ftomach, while, at the fame time, it poffeffed all its nutritive quali ties, with the fuperaddition of a fermented fpirit, might be of effential service in all thofe disorders where the body is defective either in nourishment or ftrength.

The cafe of the above-mentioned nobleman, who communicated to me the first process, gave me an opportunity of trying how far my conjectures were well founded. He was in that ftate which feemed to me ftrongly to indicate the ufe of fuch a medicine as Koumiss. I accordingly advised him to it.

At twenty-fix years of age, he laboured under a complication of chronic complaints. A confirmed lues venerea, injudiciously treated, with three fucceffive falivations by mercury, added to bad management of himself under thefe, had given rife to his difeafe. His body was much emaciated; his face was of a livid yellow colour; his eyes were funk, and round his eye-lids there was a dark shade; he felt a fevere pain in his breaft, and that was accompanied with a confiderable cough and mucous expectoration; his appetite and digeftion were greatly impaired; he had frequent tremblings and faintings; he began to feel the fymptoms of hectic fever. In a word, his whole appearance was confumptive, and he was fo weak that he required affiftance to get into the carriage in which

tary.

After drinking Koumifs fix weeks only, he returned perfectly free from all the above fymptoms, and was become fo plump and freshcoloured, that, at first fight, it was with difficulty his friends could recognife him. As he did not come immediately to Nischne-Novogorod, where I then was, he wrote me a letter, the fubftance of which, as far as it related to this subject, I fhall give here.

After telling me the fudden and remarkable change the Koumifs had produced, during the first few days; that he ceafed to be dif turbed in his fleep; that his nervous and dyfpeptic symptoms. left him; that he felt as if his veffels had been diftended with a fresh cooling liquor; that he became cheerful; that it ferved him both for food and drink; that though he ufed it to the quantity of a gallon and a half, and fometimes even more, in the twenty-four hours, yet he always drank it with pleasure, and without intoxication; that his body, during its ufe, was regularly open; but that his urine was fo much increased, that he was usually excited to make water every hour: he proceeded to exprefs himself in the following ftrong terms, which ferves to fhow how much he had profited by it.

"I am difpofed to confider Kou"mifs (fays he) with all deference

to you, as an univerfal medi"cine, which will cure every dif"eafe, if you do not chufe to ex"cept fever; for I am perfuaded, "that the most skilful phyfician, "with all the drugs of the fhop, "could not have reftored me to "the health now enjoy."