212 FOOD POISONING. 



In the years 1883 and 1884 there were reported to the Michigan 

 State Board of Health about three hundred cases of cheese poisoning. 

 As a rule, the first symptoms appeared within from two to four 

 hours after eating the cheese. In a few, the symptoms were delayed 

 from eight to ten hours and were very slight. The attending 

 physicians reported that the gravity of the symptoms varied with 

 the amount of cheese eaten, but no one who ate of the poisonous 

 cheese wholly escaped. One physician reported the following 

 symptoms : " Everyone who ate of the cheese was taken with 

 vomiting, at first of a thin, watery, later of a more consistent 

 reddish-colored substance. At the same time the patient suffered 

 from diarrhoea with watery stools. Some complained of pain in the 

 region of the stomach. At first the tongue was white, but later it 

 became red and dry ; the pulse was feeble and irregular ; countenance 

 pale with marked cyanosis. One small boy, whose condition seemed 

 very critical, was covered all over the body with bluish spots." Not- 

 withstanding the severity of the symptoms in many, there was no 

 fatal termination among these cases, though several deaths from 

 cheese poisoning in other outbreaks have occurred. Many of the 

 physicians at first diagnosed the cases from the symptoms as 

 arsenical poisoning, and on this supposition many of them adminis- 

 tered ferric hydrate. Others gave alcohol and treated upon the 

 expectant plan. Vaughan, to whom the cheese was sent for 

 analysis, made the following report : " All of these three hundred 

 cases were caused by the eating of twelve different cheeses. Of these, 

 nine were made at one factory and one each at three other &ctories. 

 Of each of the twelve I received smaller or larger pieces. Of each 

 of ten I received only small amounts. Of each of the other two 

 I received about eighteen kilograms. The cheese was in good con- 

 dition, and there was nothing in the taste or odor to excite suspicion. 

 However, from a freshly cut surface there exuded numerous drops 

 of a slightly opalescent fluid which reddened litmus paper quickly 

 and intensely. Although, as I have stated, I could discern nothing 

 peculiar in the odor, if two samples, one of good, the other of 

 poisonous cheese, were placed before a dog or cat, the animal would 

 invariably select the good cheese ; but if only poisonous cheese were 

 offered and the animal was hungry, it would partake freely. A cat 

 was kept for seven days and fed only poisonous cheese and water. 

 It ate freely of the cheese and manifested no untoward symptoms. 

 After the seven days the animal was etherized and abdominal sec- 

 tion made. Nothing abnormal could be found. I predicted, how- 

 ever, in one of my first articles on poisonous cheese that the isolated 

 poison would affect lower animals. At first I made an alcoholic 

 extract of the cheese. After the alcohol was evaporated in vacuo at 

 a low temperature a residue, consisting mainly of fatty acids, re- 

 mained. I ate a small bit of this residue, and found that it pro- 



