258 Report of the Chemical Department of the 



A study of the data contained in Table V enables us to make 

 the following statements: 



(i) The amount of salt retained in cheese is not proportional 

 to the amount of salt added to the curd. While salt was added 

 to the different cheeses in the ratio of i: 1.67: 3.33, the salt re- 

 tained in the cheese was in the ratio of i: 1.40: 2.20. Of neces- 

 sity, a considerable proportion of the salt added to cheese curd 

 passes into the whey. Moreover, we have found by examining 

 different portions of the same cheese that the salt is not com- 

 monly distributed with perfect uniformity through the cheese 

 mass. 



(2) An increase of salt in cheese-curd results in decreasing the 

 amount of moisture held in cheese. This fact is very strikingly 

 shown by the figures in Table V. The cheese containing no salt 

 retained most moisture, and increasing additions of salt decreased 

 the amount of moisture held in the cheese. The same general 

 relation held true throughout the whole period of investigation. 



(3) An increase of salt in cheese was accompanied by a de- 

 crease in the amount of water-soluble nitrogen compounds and 

 this was true through the whole 18 months of the investigation. 

 While this influence of salt is more noticeable in the case of the 

 amido compounds and ammonia, it is clearly evident in the case 

 of the paranuclein, caseoses, and peptones. 



(4) The paracasein monolactate disappears less rapidly in the 

 cheeses containing more salt. 



It is readily seen from the results embodied in Table V that the 

 rapidity of formation of water-soluble nitrogen compounds is de- 

 creased in the presence of increased amounts of salt in cheese. 

 The question arises whether this is due directly to a retarding 

 action of salt upon the agencies that cause cheese-ripening or 

 whether it is due to the effect of salt in decreasing the amount of 

 moisture held in cheese. It is true that some of the observed 

 differences in proteolysis can be accounted for by the difference in 

 moisture content noticed in the various cheeses. While this set 

 of experiments does not clearly demonstrate that salt has in itself 

 a direct retarding effect upon the cheese-ripening process, we have 

 some results obtained with another experiment which indicate that 

 salt has a retarding effect upon proteolysis in cheese. In some 



