Bacteria in Cheese. 179 



close matting, the consequence being that the body of the 

 cheese remains loose and open, a condition favorable to the 

 development of gas-generating organisms. 



Production Of flavor. The importance of flavor as deter- 

 mining the quality of cheese makes it imperative that the 

 nature of the substances that confer on cheese its peculiar 

 aromatic qualities and taste be thoroughly understood. .It 

 is to be regretted that the results obtained so far are not 

 more satisfactory, for improvement in technique is hardly 

 to be expected until the reason for the process is thoroughly 

 understood. 



The view that is most generally accepted is that this 

 most important phase of cheese curing is dependent upon 

 bacterial activity, but the organisms that are concerned in 

 this process have not as yet been satisfactorily determined. 

 In a number of cases, different species of bacteria have 

 been separated from milk and cheese that have the power 

 of producing aromatic compounds that resemble, in some 

 cases, the peculiar flavors and odors that characterize some 

 of the foreign kinds of cheese; but an introduction of these 

 into curd has not resulted in the production of the peculiar 

 variety, even though the methods of manufacture and cur- 

 ing were closely followed. The similarity in germ content 

 in different varieties of cheese made in the same locality 

 has perhaps a bearing on this question of flavor as related 

 to bacteria. Of the nine different species of bacteria found 

 in Emmenthaler cheese by Adametz, eight of them were 

 also present in ripened Hauskase. If specific flavors are 

 solely the result of specific bacterial action, it might natu- 

 rally be expected that the character of the flora would differ. 



Some suggestive experiments were made by Babcockand 

 Russell on the question of flavor as related to bacterial 



