192 Dairy Bacteriology. 



and below, mold growth is exceedingly slow, and often fructi- 

 fication does not occur, the only evidence of the mold being 

 the white, felt-like covering that is made up of the vegetat- 

 ing filaments. The use of paraffin has been suggested as a 

 means of overcoming this growth, the cheese being dipped 

 at an early stage into melted paraffin. Recent experiments 

 have shown that "off" flavors are apt to develop where 

 cheese are paraffined directly from the press. Furthermore, 

 the paraffin has a tendency to crack and separate from the 

 rind, thus allowing molds to develop beneath the paraffin 

 coat, where the conditions are ideal as to moisture, for 

 evaporation is excluded and the air consequently saturated. 

 The use of formalin (2$ solution) has been suggested as a 

 wash for the outside of the cheese. This substance or 

 sulfur is also applied in a gaseous form. Double bandag- 

 ing is also resorted to as a means of making the cheese 

 more presentable through the removal of the outer bandage. 

 The nature of these molds has not been thoroughly 

 studied as yet. The ordinary blue-green bread mold, 

 Penicillium glaucum, is most frequently found, but there 

 are numerous other forms that appear, especially at low 

 temperatures. 



Poisonous Cheese* Cases of acute poisoning arising from 

 the ingestion of cheese are reported from time to time. 

 Vaughan has succeeded in showing that this condition is 

 due to the formation of a highly poisonous alkaloid which 

 he has isolated, and which he calls tyrotoxicon. 1 This poison- 

 ous ptomaine has also been demonstrated in milk and other 

 milk products, and is undoubtedly due to the development 

 of various putrefactive bacteria that find their way into 

 the milk. It seems quite probable that the development 



Zeit. f. physiol. theinie, 10:146. 



