POISONOUS CHEESE. 59 



swallowing, delirium, mild trismus, aud temperature 40° C. 

 (104° F.). The temperature of the mother, ou account of 

 the great collapse, was subnormal. She had no convulsive 

 movements, but there was prolonged loss of consciousness. 

 The pulse was small and thready, and threatened paralysis 

 of the heart. Recovery was very slow. The others suf- 

 fered only from gastro-enteric symptoms. Ehrhahdt 

 discusses the question as to whether these symptoms were 

 due to tyrotoxicon, or to infection with microorganisms ; 

 but as we have not had access to his original paper, we do 

 not know what his conclusions are. However, there cannot 

 be much doubt that in those cases in which the organism 

 is taken into the alimentary canal, it continues the elabora- 

 tion of its poisonous products. 



In 1890 Vaughan made the following additional report 

 on poisonous cheese : 



''During the past two or three years we have received 

 at the Hygienic Laboratory of Michigan University a 

 number of samples of cheese which, it was claimed, had 

 caused nausea and vomiting in those eating of them, and 

 in which we were unable to detect tyrotoxicon. Some of 

 these samples produced vomiting and purging in cats and 

 dogs to which the cheese was fed directly. The evidence 

 that these samples had been the actual cause of the sickness 

 among the people who had eaten of them was thus con- 

 firmed by the experiments upon the animals ; but inasmuch 

 as we were unable to detect the poison, we were compelled 

 to report as follows : 



" ' The poisonous character of the cheese has been proven 

 by experiments upon animals, but we have failed to demon- 

 strate the nature of the poison. Tyrotoxicon could not be 

 detected.' 



" One sample of this class was found by N"ovY to be very 

 poisonous. Some of this cheese was covered with absolute 

 alcohol, and after standing in a dish for some weeks the 

 alcohol was allowed to evaporate, then 100 grammes of the 

 cheese was fed to a young dog and caused its death within 

 a few hours. Sterilized milk to which a small bit of the 

 cheese was added, after standing in the incubator at 35°. 



