i66 Report of the Chemical Department of the 



were found: Tyrosine, oxyphenylethylamine, arginine in traces, 

 histidine, lysine, guanidine, putrescine in traces, and ammonia. In 

 the chloroformed cheese were found the same compounds, except 

 oxyphenylethylamine, guanidine, putrescine, and ammonia; but 

 arginine was found in marked quantities for the first time in cheese. 



5. A consideration of the possible sources of carbon dioxide in 

 the two cheeses indicates that, in the case of the chloroformed cheese, 

 the carbon dioxide came from that present originally in the milk and 

 that formed in the milk from the decomposition of milk-sugar before 

 treatment with chloroform. In the case of the normal cheese, the 

 carbon dioxide given off in its early age came largely from the de- 

 composition of milk-sugar by lactic acid organisms, while a small 

 amount was probably due to the carbon dioxide present in the milk 

 and to the respiration of living organisms present in the cheese. 

 The carbon dioxide produced after the first few weeks came ap- 

 parently from reactions taking place in some of the amido com- 

 pounds, among which we were able to identify the change of tyrosine 

 and arginine into derived products with simultaneous formation of 

 carbon dioxide. 



6. In the chloroformed cheese, the only active proteolytic agents 

 were lactic acid, galactase and rennet-pepsin. Under the conditions 

 of our experiment, these agents were able to form neither ammonia 

 nor secondary amido compounds with production of carbon dioxide. 

 The presence of chloroform could not account for this lack of action. 

 These results suggest that, in the normal cheese, there must have 

 been some agent at work not present in the chloroformed cheese and 

 that this extra factor was of a biological character. 



