The Bacillus of Long Life / A Manual of the Preparation and Souring of Milk for Dietary Purposes, Together with an Historical Account of the Use of Fermented Milks, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, and Their Wonderful Effect in the Prolonging of Human Existence

by Loudon M. Douglas

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY—HISTORICAL

The milk industry is one of the oldest known to mankind, and it is difficult to imagine a time when milk in one way or another did not form a part of the diet of the human race. There is a good deal of evidence to show that in Paleolithic and Neolithic times, cattle were part of the possessions of the nomadic races; and, according to the Vedas, the manufacture of butter was known in India 1500 years B.C.

In the eastern part of Europe, milk has always been looked upon as one of the principal kinds of food, but not necessarily the milk of cows, as, from ancient times to the present day, the milk from camels, buffaloes, sheep, and goats has been used indiscriminately throughout the East.

According to Layard,[1] "the Bedouins do not make cheese. The milk of their sheep and goats is shaken into butter or turned into curds; it is rarely or never drunk fresh, new milk being thought very unwholesome, as soon by experience I found it to be, in the desert. I have frequently had occasion to describe the process of making butter by shaking the milk in skins. This is also an employment confined to women, and one of a very laborious nature. The curds are formed by boiling the milk, and then putting some curds made on the previous day into it and allowing it to stand. When the sheep no longer give milk, some curds are dried, to be used as a leaven on a future occasion. This preparation, called leben, is thick and acid, but very agreeable and grateful to the taste in a hot climate. The sour milk, or sheneena, a universal beverage amongst the Arabs, is either buttermilk pure and diluted, or curds mixed with water.

The Pass of Bukova.—During the revolution of 1904, a number of Turkish soldiers, just before traversing this pass, were given coffee containing "café" by a Bulgarian coffee-seller, or keeper of a small khan. Whilst in the pass the poison began to take effect, and they realized that they had been poisoned. Fortunately for them, a peasant with three horses loaded with Yoghourt (soured milk) had taken advantage of their escort. The soldiers ate freely of the Yoghourt, which counteracted the effects of the poison.

"The camel's milk is drunk fresh. It is pleasant to the taste, rich, and exceedingly nourishing. It is given in large quantities to the horses. The Shammar and Aneyza Bedouins have no cows or oxen, those animals being looked upon as the peculiar property of tribes who have forgotten their independence, and degraded themselves by the cultivation of land. The sheep are milked at dawn, or even before daybreak, and again in the evening on their return from the pastures. The milk is immediately turned into leben, or boiled to be shaken into butter. Amongst the Bedouins and Jebours it is considered derogatory to the character of a man to milk a cow or sheep, but not to milk the camel. The Sheikhs occasionally obtain dates from the cities. They are eaten dry with bread and leben, or fried in butter, a very favourite dish of the Bedouin...."

The practice is now the same as it was in scriptural times, when milk was looked upon as the principal article of diet, and throughout the Scriptures there are copious references to milk in different forms, some of which are of peculiar interest at the present day.

It may be noticed, for example, that milk is absent from the sacred offerings amongst the Hebrews, and this was ascribed by the late Professor Robertson Smith to the fact that all ferments were excluded from presentation at the altar,[2] it being recognised that, owing to the hot climate, milk of all kinds became rapidly sour, and in this way came to be looked upon as only fit for consumption when in that condition. It has been suggested that the prohibition referred to is on the same level as the prohibition of the use of blood, "as milk has sometimes been regarded as a kind of equivalent for blood, and containing the sacred life."[3] To this day the wandering tribes of Arabia consider the milk of their camels and flocks more refreshing when it has been slightly fermented or soured by being poured into a milk-skin on the inside of which are still sticking sour clots from the previous milking, and there shaken for a brief period; but this slightly soured milk (the Oxygala of Pliny) is known widely in the East simply as leben (milk). The name is also applied to what we term buttermilk.[4]

Kabyles Souring Milk

In the north of Africa the use of soured milk is common, and the illustration shows Kabyles shaking a skin full of milk so as to sour it. The skin has previously been used for the same operation, and, as a consequence, clots of milk are left from the previous day's use, and thus fermentation is set up.

The use of milk-skins for the carrying of milk is not confined to one country, as, while it is common all over the north of Africa, it is also known in the Pyrenees and in some parts of the Balkan Peninsula, the object being identical in each case; and when it is intended to make butter from the milk, the skin is simply rocked between the knees until the butter separates, a process of butter-making which was also used after the introduction of earthenware churns.[5] Dried soured milk is also used by the Arabs, and it is reconstituted when required by rubbing it up with a little water, and it is known as Meeresy.[6] The ordinary soured milk is the common article of diet, and is looked upon as being necessary at every meal, and travellers frequently refer to the use of this product, as a few references will show.

Amongst the peasants at the present day, soured milk is known as _yoghourt_, a word which is spelt differently according to the locality in which it is used. The method of preparation is practically the same everywhere, and a short description of the process as now carried out in one place would, with slight modifications, apply to the general method adopted all over the East.

Charles G. Addison states: "A supper was brought in on a round tray. In the centre was a huge pilaff of rice, and around it several small dishes of stewed meats, grilled bones, sour clotted milk called yaoort,[7] bits of meat roasted, etc....

"We retired into a tent to breakfast, where we found an immense bowl of delicious fresh camels' milk, with thin hot cakes of unleavened bread, baked upon the ashes, ready prepared for us. The principal food of the Bedouins consists of flour and some camels' milk made into a paste, boiled, and eaten swimming in melted grease and butter; boiled wheat and beans dried in the sun and prepared with butter are a favourite dish. They are all remarkably fond of butter and grease; the butter is made in a goat-skin, suspended to the tent pole, and constantly shaken about by the women."[8]

Burckhardt[9] says: "The provisions of my companion consisted only of flour; besides flour, I carried some butter and dried leben (sour milk), which would dissolve in water. It forms not only a refreshing beverage, but is much to be recommended as a preservative of health when travelling in summer. These are our only provisions." With regard to the inhabitants of the Houran, Burckhardt relates that the most common dishes of these people are bourgoul and keshk. "In summer they supply the place of the latter by milk, leben, and fresh butter. Of the bourgoul I have spoken on other occasions; there are two kinds of keshk—keshk-hammer and keshk-leben. The first is prepared by putting leaven into the bourgoul and pouring water over it. It is then left until almost putrid, and afterwards spread out in the sun and dried, after which it is pounded, and, when called for, served up mixed with oil or butter. The keshk-leben is prepared by putting leben into the bourgoul instead of leaven; in other respects the process is the same. Keshk and bread are the common breakfasts. Towards sunset a plate of bourgoul, or some Arab dish, forms the dinner."

Again, Taylor[10] says: "I received a small jug of thick buttermilk, not remarkably clean, but very refreshing."

These references particularly refer to the East, from which it would appear that soured milk was universally known in ancient times as it is at the present day, and this remark applies not only to Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia, but throughout Turkey and the Balkan States, where the consumption of soured milk is equally common. It seems curious that the use of this commodity should have been confined for centuries to the East, as we shall see later on that its dietetic value is so great that it is really a wonderful thing that no one has taken the trouble to introduce its use to the Western nations until quite recently.

The Handling OF Milk in the Pyrenees

The handling of milk in the Pyrenees is, more especially in the villages, conducted in goat or sheep skins, in a similar way to the methods which prevail in Eastern Europe, and the picture shows a skin of milk on a small farm in the Pyrenees. The churning is very often performed by simply rocking the skin between the knees, acidity being induced by remnants of the previous day's milk; souring of milk is induced by the same method.

A curious example of how the virtues of such an article may be independently discovered by another nation is to be found in Lapland, where reindeer's milk is the article used. "The reindeer's milk," says Acerbi,[11] "constitutes a principal part of the Laplander's food, and he has two methods of preparing it, according to the season. In summer he boils the milk with sorrel till it arrives to a consistence; in this manner he preserves it for use during that short season. In winter the following is his method of preparation: The milk, which he collects in autumn till the beginning of November, from the reindeer, is put into casks, or whatever vessels he has, in which it soon turns sour, and, as the cold weather comes on, freezes, and in this state it is kept. The milk collected after this time is mixed with cranberries and put into the paunch of the reindeer, well cleaned from filth; thus the milk soon congeals, and it is cut out in slices, together with the paunch, to effect which a hatchet is used, for no smaller instrument would perform the office of dividing that lump of ice. It is then separated into small pieces and eaten throughout the winter every day at noon, which is the Laplander's dinner-hour. It must be presumed, as it is served up without being brought to the fire, that this is ice-cream in the greatest perfection: here are flesh and fruit blended with the richest butyraceous milk that can be drawn from any animal; but, notwithstanding the extraordinary fatness, which may be supposed to resist in a great degree the effect of cold, this preparation, as our good missionary remarks with a degree of feeling, as if his teeth still chattered whilst he delivered the account, chills and freezes the mouth in a violent manner whenever it is taken. The milk which is drawn late in the winter freezes immediately after being drawn. This is put into small vessels made of birchwood, and is considered by the Laplander as such an extraordinary delicacy, that he reserves it as the most acceptable present he can offer even a missionary. It is placed before the fire and eaten with a spoon as it is thawed. When put by, it is carefully covered up, because if the cold air gets to it afterwards, it turns of a yellow colour and becomes rancid."

Amongst the peasants at the present day, soured milk is known as yoghourt, a word which is spelt differently according to the locality in which it is used. The method of preparation is practically the same everywhere, and a short description of the process as now carried out in one place would, with slight modifications, apply to the general method adopted all over the East.

"The culture," says a correspondent at Varna, "which is used for the preparation of yogourt, is known as 'Maya' or as 'Bulgarian Maya.' The milk which is to be converted into yogourt must first be freed from all bacteria by boiling and allowed to cool to the temperature of 45° C.; it is then inoculated with maya and maintained at an even temperature of 45° C. during several hours. There are two kinds of maya, or ferment, one known as sour, and the other as sweet maya.

"In Europe small stoves, made expressly for the purpose, are used to maintain the milk at the proper temperature. In this country, however, after the milk has been boiled, it is merely poured into a bowl and allowed to cool to approximately 45° C., then a tablespoonful of this tepid milk is well mixed (in a small bowl apart) with a similar quantity of maya, and the mixture, when it has become quite homogeneous, is added to the bowl of tepid milk and stirred slightly. (One tablespoonful of maya is sufficient to ferment one litre of milk.) A cover is then placed on the bowl and the whole is enveloped in flannel and left in a warm place for three hours in summer, and somewhat longer in winter.

"The process of preparation is complete when the mixture assumes the appearance of a soft mass somewhat resembling cream cheese, but less solid. The flannel is then removed, the bowl uncovered and placed in a cool spot until needed for consumption. Of the yogourt thus prepared, a tablespoonful is kept to serve as maya for the following day.

"The best yogourt is prepared from sheep's milk, the second quality from buffaloes' milk, and the third quality from cows' milk. Yogourt forms an almost daily article of diet with the natives in this country."[12]

With regard to the time stated for the fermenting process, it must be noted that since the subject has been investigated so thoroughly, the time required for fermentation has been found to be nearer ten than three hours, but this will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter.

Historically it may be gleaned from the fragmentary references which we have given, that soured milk has, from time immemorial, formed the principal article of diet of a great many peoples, and the notable feature in connection with it is, that in some countries where it is in daily use, the age limit for human beings seems to be very much extended, and it would appear that there is a direct connection between the use of soured milk and longevity. In Bulgaria, for example, it is stated that the majority of the natives live to an age considerably in excess of what is recognised as the term of life amongst Western nations, and inquiry has shown that in the eastern part of Southern Europe, amongst a population of about three millions, there were more than three thousand centenarians found performing duties which would not be assigned to a man of sixty-five years of age elsewhere. It is quite common to find amongst the peasants who live to such a large extent upon soured milk, individuals of 110 and 120 years of age.[13]

In the ancient dairy practice, as we have seen, soured milk was the principal product, and the extraordinary ages which are recorded of the patriarchs, if translated into the modern denomination, would not appear to be so imaginary after all, when it is considered that we have thousands of examples at the present day of men and women enjoying quite as long a term of existence. It has been noticed also, that while these very old people are able to perform a certain amount of manual labour, there is not the same tendency to the mental decay which is so prominent and sad a feature amongst Western nations, at a period of about seventy or eighty years of age. It would seem, indeed, as if the habit of living long was well known in ancient times, and that, like many other of the valuable arts and sciences, it fell under a cloud during the Middle Ages, or, perhaps, the significance of the use of soured milk fell into neglect, and, even after the revival of letters in the sixteenth century, still remained obscure.

The discovery of micro-organisms in perishable products, which is attributable to Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutchman, whose vocation was the polishing of lenses, and who lived between 1632 and 1723, altered our point of view, not only of disease, but of all the functions carried on by the lower organisms. Since Van Leeuwenhoek's time, the germ theory has grown to vast proportions and has more especially been applied with splendid results to the study of milk. As we shall see later, the researches of modern investigators have led them to the conclusion that micro-organisms play such an important part in the milk supply, that it is impossible to carry it on safely without a knowledge of the bacteriology of the subject. This view began to prevail about 1890, some twenty years after Pasteur had shown what fermentation really meant. Since that time, the progress in dairying has been continuous, and, during recent years, attention has been directed to soured milk to such an extent that it has become necessary for all who are interested in the handling of milk and milk products to have a knowledge of the subject, as it seems clearly demonstrated that, under proper direction, there is every possibility of its forming an important element in the prolongation of life.

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