Produced by Peter Vachuska, Turgut Dincer, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Transcriber's note: │ │ │ │ Words in bold characters are enclosed within "+" signs. │ │ The list of Putnam Science Series has been moved to the │ │ advertisement section at the end of the book. The UTF-8 │ │ version of the text file will require a Unicode capable │ │ text reader to display a few Greek characters and "oe" │ │ ligatures which occur in the book. │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ [Illustration: THE OLDEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD AND HER SON Baba Vasilka is 126 years old, and her son Tudor is 101. They are peasants, and have lived all their lives in a little village in Bulgaria. They are typical examples of people who live to a great age by the use of soured milk, as it has been their principal food all their lives.] 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, F.R.S.E. _With 62 Illustrations_ G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1911 _Revised Edition_ COPYRIGHT, 1911 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS The Knickerbocker Press, New York PREFACE This book has been designed with a view to meet an extensive demand for definite data on the subject of Soured Milks. The author has had this matter brought before him, times without number, by those inquiring for authentic information on the subject, and he has therefore considered it desirable to gather together such information as is available in connection with ancient and modern practice. He has endeavoured to present this to the reader in concise form.