CHEESE POISONING. 



HY WILLIAM LEVIN. 



Cheese poisoning was very common in Michigan in the eighties of the 

 last century^ about .'}()() to K)() cases being reported to tlie State Board 

 of Health in 1883-188i. Vaughan/ in 1881, working with samples of 

 the poisonous cheese^ obtained a ptomaine which he called tyrotoxicon, 

 and which he considered the active poisoning agent. His work was 

 corroborated by several investigators. "- ^' * Lepierre,'* in 189i, extracted 

 a base having the formula CigHo^NaO^ from poisonous cheese. 

 Dokkum/ in 1895, considered tyroxin, a base which he had obtained from 

 poisonous cheese, the poisoning agent. All these investigators were of 

 tlie opinion that cheese poisoning was an intoxication. With the 

 bacteriological methods of analysis, however, it was soon sliown that the 

 ])oisoning was caused by certain organisms, usually of the B. Coli group, 

 and was to be considered, therefore, not an intoxication, but an 

 infection.'- '■ «- " 



On June 21, 1916, the Hygienic Laboratory received a piece of 

 American cheese, of about 100 grammes, from Dr. W. S. Tomkinson, 

 of Kalamazoo, Mich. The sample was part of a cheese which had 

 caused marked gastro-intestinal disturbances to a family of six, including 

 four children, in that city. On bacterial analysis an organism was 

 isolated which proved pathogenic to mice. After passage through several 

 mice the organism had increased in virulence to kill rats ; and after 

 passage through these, to kill guinea pigs. The organism was then passed 

 tlirough about fifty guinea pigs, isolated from the heart blood of the 

 last animal, and obtained in pure culture. The organism isolated from 

 the cheese is a facultative anaerobe, having the size of B. Colon. Its 

 motility dei^ends upon the age and the kind of media in whicli it is 

 grown — ranging from very marked to practically no motility. It is 

 Gram-negative, not acid-fast, and forms no spores. It ferments pentoses, 

 hexoses, di- and tri-saccharides, and dextrin. It reduces- nitrates and 

 forms indol. 



Agglutination tests showed tliat the bacillus is related to the colon 

 group. Immune sera of several organisms agglutinated the cheese 

 poisoning bacillus in the following dilutions : 



19th Mich. Acad. Sci. Rept., 1917. 



