private cures, and this for several
reasons. Not only is the kumys said to be inferior when prepared in such
small quantities, but no specialist or any other doctor can be
constantly on hand to regulate the functional disorders which this diet
frequently occasions. Moreover, the air of the steppe plays an important
part in the cure. When a person drinks from five to fifteen or more
bottles a day, and sometimes adds the proper amount of fatty, starchy,
and saccharine elements, some other means than the stomach are
indispensable for disposing of the refuse. As a matter of fact, in the
hot, dry, even temperature of the steppe, where patients are encouraged
to remain out-of-doors all day and drink slowly, they perspire kumys.
When the system becomes thoroughly saturated with this food-drink,
catarrh often makes its appearance, but disappears at the close of the
cure. Colic, constipation, diarrhoea, nose-bleed, and bleeding from the
lungs are also present at times, as well as sleeplessness, toothache,
and other disorders. The effects of kumys are considered of especial
value in cases of weak lungs, anaemia, general debility caused by any
wasting illness, ailments of the digestive organs, and scurvy, for which
it is taken by many naval officers.

In short, although it is not a cure for all earthly ills, it is of value
in many which proceed from imperfect nutrition producing exhaustion of
the patient. There are some conditions of the lungs in which it cannot
be used, as well as in organic diseases of the brain and heart,
epilepsy, certain disorders of the liver, and when gallstones are
present. It is drunk at the temperature of the air which surrounds the
patient, but must be warmed with hot water, not in the sun, and sipped
slowly, with pauses, not drunk down in haste; and generally exercise
must be taken. Turn where we would in those kumys establishments, we
encountered a patient engaged in assiduous promenading, with a bottle of
kumys suspended from his arm and a glassful in his hand.

Coffee, chocolate, and wine are some of the luxuries which must be
renounced during a kumys cure, and though black tea (occasionally with
lemon) is allowed, no milk or cream can be permitted to contend with the
action of the mare's milk unless by express permission of the physician.
"Cream kumys," which is advertised as a delicacy in America, is a
contradiction in terms, it will be seen, as it is made of cow's milk,
and cream would be contra