SOFT CHEESES. 235 



center, checking the action of the lactic bacilli. The cheese 

 is fully ripened when the influence of the peptonizing species 

 reaches the center. It is necessary that both species should 

 act together to produce the result. Limburger cheese, in the 

 same way, is produced by the combined action of two species 

 of bacilli. Brie cheese is said also to be ripened by the com- 

 bined action of Penicillium album and a bacillus of the lactic 

 type. In regard to- the long list of other soft cheeses 

 little is known, and we must be content with the general 

 knowledge that the ripening is due in part to the action of 

 chemical enzymes, but in large degree to the development of 

 microorganisms stimulated into growth by the conditions 

 under which the cheese is ripened. Each type of soft cheese 

 must be studied as an individual problem. 



The manufacture of these cheeses has hitherto been based 

 upon purely empirical methods, and each of these numerous 

 kinds has usually been manufactured only in the particular 

 locality where it has first appeared. The attempt to manufac- 

 ture similar cheeses in other localities is only partially suc- 

 cessful, a fact attributed to the absence in the new localities 

 of the proper microorganisms for developing the typical 

 ripening. In some instances, indeed, in establishing a new 

 factory for the manufacture of a particular brand of cheese, 

 it has been necessary to procure the fresh cheeses from a 

 factory where the brand has previously been made, and rub 

 them over the shelves and the walls of the ripening room in 

 the new factory, the purpose being to inoculate the new 

 factory with the types of microorganisms that are needed 

 for the proper ripening, and which are abundant in the older 

 factory, though absent from the new one. 



The soft cheeses have their home in continental Europe 

 and have not been manufactured very widely elsewhere. 

 There is no reason, however, why any of these soft cheeses 

 could not be perfectly well manufactured in this country, 

 provided their manufacture could be properly studied in their 



