Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Von Ziemssen's Handbook of general therapeutics. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![Postnikoff furtlier recoramends the konmiss eure in diseases of the Organs of digestion, as i'ccognised by diarrhoea er constipation, pains in the bowels, derangeinent of the appetite, indigestion, &c. He also praises it in scrofula, vaginal catarrh, and chronic Urethritis, venereal abuse, in convalescence after exhaustive diseases, in chronic skin aftections, in ulcerations and caries. In all these diseases it acts as a nutritive agent aiad restores the organisni to its normal con- dition. When the oi^gans of digestion are healthy, the results of the koumiss eure show themselves at once, in morlDid states of these organs not until after some time. Koumiss is contra-indicated in high fever, in organic diseases of the brain, and renal or vesical calculus. To avoid sudden chilling of the body koumiss should be drunk warmed to about 77° F.; the absorption too is thus aided. Beginning with one bottle the daily allowance may be raised to 6 to 10. The larger Proportion should be taken in the morning, and a pause should be made before dinner that the appetite may have time to recover itself. The koumiss should be gulped down in small doses at a time, active movement being kept up meanwhile. In constipation the weak form should be taken, in diarrhoea the strong. Düring the treatment the diet should be mainly of meat; liquids should be avoided, in Order that so much more koumiss may be drunk; and spirits are actually hurtful. Vegetables may only be taken boiled. The therapeutic efFects of koumiss having been much more thoroughly examined by the greater number of authors than the physiological, BoikofF has endeavoured to supply this want.i The pitiable State with conLinued fever and csdema of the estremities, and soon died. At the post-mortem examination the entire \\mgs were found converted into a ckrhotic tissue, and showing cheesy deposits in the middle- lobes. In one lung the apex was cicatrised, the middle infiltrated, the ]ower cßdematous. From the evidence of this autopsy Postnikoif draws the conclusion that by the use of koumiss the catarrhal pneumonia was cured, as proved by the cicatrisation and encysting, bat that ander the unfavourable circumstances of the winters the process was again and again re-excited until it ultimately ended fatally. , i . > BoikofF Mat(^rials for SoMng tTie Question of tJw Physiological Action of K,mmss (Paissian), Moscow dissert., 1876. The author states his opinion that the use of koumiss among all nomadic peoples is to be attributed to the fact that the conversion of the sugar by fermentation into alcohol, carbonic acid, and lactic acid gives it at once a nutritive and iutoxicating action whereas the unaltered mare's milk disorders the stomach and cannot be used as food The palpably nutritive value of koumiss has also led to its bemg tned m diseases accompanied by exhaustion, especially in phthisis. All physicians who have watched the treatmout of consumption by kounuss speak in tha-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21995473_0001_0398.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
