It is not the aim of this book to teach persons who should be under medical treatment to doctor themselves; soured milk may or may not be beneficial in their case—that is for the medical man to say; and further, if it should be beneficial the doctor ought to have its preparation under his control. Slight differences in quality and purity may count for much in cases of acute disease, differences which might not matter to the person who requires no medical attention, and who consumes the article as a health-giving food. A considerable body of evidence is already on record as to the potency in certain cases of soured milk as a curative agent, and it seems to have taken its place in medicine as a recognised remedy.
There is a wide field of usefulness, however, outside of the strictly medical one. Professor Metchnikoff has collected many striking examples of individuals and peoples inhabiting different parts of the world, who thrive, and in many cases attain to a great age, and whose diet consists largely of soured milk. He has made a wide and general inquiry into the causes which tend to shorten life, and makes out a strong case in support of the view that in many cases this is the result of what is called auto-intoxication or self-poisoning. In man and in the mammalia generally, the colon or large intestine is very largely developed; this organ is not of much value in the digestion of food, and seems to be chiefly a receptacle for waste material; it is, as a rule, extremely rich in bacterial flora, which produce putrefactive changes in the waste material. As a result various poisonous principles are evolved, and these find their way into the blood, accompanied frequently, there is every reason to believe, by the injurious bacteria themselves. In this way many diseases and ailments are produced which shorten life. The inquiry then naturally turns to what is the best way of dealing with this state of matters. It is known that the bacteria referred to flourish best in alkaline or at least non-acid surroundings, and it is known that these conditions very frequently exist in the large intestine. Acids are the best antiseptics; they have been used from time immemorial as preservatives; pickles are preserved in vinegar or acetic acid, and when milk is allowed to sour under proper conditions, the germs of putrefaction are destroyed or their activity inhibited, and it keeps a considerable time. Doubtless, in hot countries, it was this property of lactic acid which first led to milk being artificially soured with a view to its preservation as an article of food. So powerful is lactic acid in this respect that it is a custom in some countries to preserve meat by placing it in soured milk.