The Bacillus of Long Life a Manual of the Preparation and Souring of Milk for Dietary Purposes, Together with and Historical Account of the Use

Excerpt: ...combined action of lactic acid and alcohol-producing organisms is called koumiss, kumys, milk-wine, lac fermentation, or vinum lactis. In the steppes of Southern Russia and Asia, as we have seen, 59 it is prepared chiefly from mares' milk, but occasionally from that of camels and jennets. The name is said to be derived from that of a tribe mentioned by Xenophon and Pliny, viz., the Kumanen, by whom its preparation was practised. After the war with the Tartars in 1215 its use was adopted by the latter people, and eventually spread to the Turkomanen, Kalmucks, Khirgiz, Mongolians, etc. Rubruck, in 1253, records the use of a fermented drink