168 Canadian Record of Science. 



cheese poisoning, indeed, were a puzzle to both physicians 

 and chemists. About six years ago, however, Dr. Victor C. 

 Vaughan, of the University of Michigan, succeeded in 

 isolating from some cheese of this character a poison which 

 he called tyrotoxicon. This cheese had produced most 

 alarming symptoms somewhat resembling cholera in more 

 than 300 persons in the State of Michigan. This poison he 

 referred to a very remarkable class of bodies, the so-called 

 ptomaines, which have come greatly into notice of late years. 

 These ptomaines are substances similar in constitution and 

 properties to the alkaloids which are found in plants, and, 

 like these, while many of them are quite harmless others are 

 as deadly poisons as strychnine itself. They are found in 

 decomposing animal matter of all kinds. It is from this 

 circumstance that they have received the names of pto- 

 maines, from nrooji a, a corpse. From their resemblance to 

 vegetable alkaloids they are also called cadaveric alkaloids, 

 or the alkaloids of putrefaction. . They are many of them 

 crystalline bodies which form definite salts with acids and 

 give well marked reactions with various chemical reagents. 

 They appear to arise under certain conditions as products of 

 the decomposition of albumen and allied bodies. This 

 tyrotoxicon is derived from a peculiar decomposition of the 

 casein of cheese. 



Tyrotoxicon is a crystalline body which, when eaten in 

 very minute quantities, produces in an aggravated form 

 symptoms precisely similar to those of cheese poisoning. 

 Since it is produced in cheese by the decomposition of 

 casein, it would appear ajyriori probable that it might some- 

 times be formed in decomposing milk. This turned out to 

 be the case. Soon after his discovery of this poison in 

 cheese, Dr. Yaughan was able to detect it in a sample of 

 milk which had been kept in a stoppered bottle for about 

 six months, and subsequently in other samples of milk 

 allowed to stand for three months in closed bottles. 



In June, 1886, in the village of Lawton, Michigan, 

 eighteen people were seized with most alarming symptoms 

 after eating ice cream flavored with vanilla. A sample of the 

 cream was sent to Dr. Vaughan, together with some of the 



