56 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



matter consists of food, then it becomes "svatery and is frequently 

 stained with Llood. The stools are at first semisolid, and then 

 are watery and serous. The heart is depressed, the pulse be- 

 comes weak and irregular, and in severe cases the face appears 

 cyanotic. There may be dilatation of the pupil, but this is not 

 seen in all. The most dangerous cases are those in which the vom- 

 iting is slight and soon ceases altogether, and the bowels are con- 

 stipated from the beginning. Such cases as these require prompt 

 and energetic treatment. The stomach and bowels should be thor- 

 oughly irrigated in order to remove the poison, and the action of 

 the heart must be sustained. 



At one time the writer believed that tyrotoxicon was the ac- 

 tive agent in all samples of poisonous cheese, but more extended 

 experimentation has convinced him that this is not tlie case. In- 

 deed, this poison is rarely found, w4iile the number of poisons in 

 harmful cheese is no doubt considerable. There are numerous 

 poisonous albumins found in cheese and other milk products. 

 "While all of these are gastro-intestinal irritants, they differ con- 

 siderably in other respects. 



Tn 1895 the writer and Perkins made a prolonged study of a 

 bacillus found in cheese which had poisoned fifty people. Chem- 

 ically the poison produced by this germ is distinguished from tyro- 

 toxicon by the fact that it is not removed from alkaline solution 

 w^ith ether. Physiologically the new poison has a more pro- 

 nounced effect on the heart, in w'hicli it resembles muscarin or 

 neurin more closely than it does tyrotoxicon. Pathologically, the 

 two poisons are unlike, inasmuch as the new poison induces marked 

 congestion of the tissues about the point of injection w^hen used 

 upon animals hypodermically. Furthermore, the intestinal con- 

 strictions w'hich are so uniformly observed in animals poisoned by 

 tyrotoxicon was not once seen in our work with this new poison, 

 although it was carefully looked for in all our experiments. 



In 1898 the writer, with McClymonds, examined samples of 

 cheese from more than sixty manufacturers in this country and in 

 Europe. In all samples of ordinary American green cheese poi- 

 sonous germs were found in greater or less abundance. These 

 germs resemble very closely the colon bacillus, and most likely their 

 presence in the milk is to be accounted for by contamination with 

 bits of fecal matter from the cow. It is more than probable that 

 the manufacture of cheese is yet in its infancy, and we need some 

 one to do for this industry what Pasteur did for the manufacture 

 of beer. At present the flavor of a given cheese depends upon the 

 bacteria and molds which accidentally get into it. The time will 

 probably come when all milk used for the manufacture of cheese 



