126 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



next day. After her recovery the same kitten ate of the cheese again without auy 

 noticeable ill effects, and several others also ate of it without harm. It appears, 

 therefore, that the illness of the first animal may as well have been caused by over- 

 eating of rich food as by any supposed poisonous character belougiug to the cheese. 

 I examined the cheese for poisonous metals in the rind, and for matters of the nature 

 of alkaloids in the other part ; no metals were found. With respect to the secoud 

 test, a very small quantity of a substance, precipitated by alkali, soluble in ether, 

 and giving with platinum chloride a yellowish flocculent precipitate, was obtained. 

 These reactions indicate an alkaloid, but I have not been able as yet to carry the 

 examination any further, and, moreover, it is not at all unlikely that a substance of 

 the same character may be found in any ripened cheese as one of the normal products 

 of the putrefaction. Therefore, this result obtained with the poisonous cheese can 

 have no significance till normal cheese has been examined in the same manner with- 

 out finding any evidence of the presence of alkaloids. For the present, therefore, we 

 can only repeat what others have said who have given this matter their attention, 

 that the cause of this peculiar property of cheese is probably an unknown oPganic 

 substance, resulting from an aborinal process of ripening. 



Fickert l gives the results of some recent legal investigations on this 

 subject. Cheese is so seldom the object of adulteration that when 

 lately the daily papers stated that it was sometimes treated with urine 

 in order to give it more quickly the desired odor and taste, it was 

 considered as an isolated case. More worthy of note, therefore, was 

 the discovery in a trial at Frankeuberg, in Saxony, that mashed boiled 

 potatoes had been used as an adulterant of cheese. This adulteration 

 had already been discussed byPopperheim,and that, too, in cheese made 

 especially for home consumption and not intended for commerce. This 

 adulterant is easily detected by the microscope and by iodine. 



Since the intrinsic value of cheese depends largely on its high content 

 of albuminoids, viz, about 30 per cent., and since potatoes contain not 

 much over a per cent, of these bodies, it is easily seen how greatly the 

 value of the cheese is impaired by such an admixture. 



TYROTOXICON. 



The poisonous substance which sometimes is developed in cheese aud 

 milk has been isolated by Vaughn. 2 This substance, the chemical na- 

 ture of which is not yet fully understood, has been found in cheese, milk, 

 ice-cream, and oysters. For an account of its toxic properties consult 

 Dr. Vaughn's papers. 



Centralblatt, 1886, p. 956; Rep. d. ver. anal. Chein., vol. 6, p. 486. 

 2 Paper read at Buffalo meeting A. A. A. S., Aug., 1886, Chem. News, 1886; Medical 

 News, April 2, 1887, p. 369. 



