214 FOOD POISONING. 



more severe cases, blood. The diarrhoeal discharges, at first fecal, 

 later became watery and light colored. No deaths resulted, and for 

 the most part the effects were transient, and all that remained on the 

 following day were the prostration and numbness, which disappeared 

 in from one to three days. Children apparently suffered less than 

 adults. All remarked on the suddenness of the attack, feeling per- 

 fectly well until nausea and vertigo set in. Wolff detected tyrotox- 

 icon in cheese which poisoned several persons, at Shamokin, Pa. 

 The pores of this cheese were found filled with a grayish-green fun- 

 goid growth, though it is not supposed that this was connected in 

 any way with the poisonous nature of the food. Tests were made 

 for mineral and vegetable poisons with negative results, after which 

 tyrotoxicon was recognized both by chemical and physiological tests. 

 Ehrhart published the history of cases of poisoning from Limburger 

 cheese. The rind was covered with a heavy mould, while the inte- 

 rior had become fluid fi-om putrefaction and was of bitter taste. 

 Three ate only of the mouldy rind, and these remained well. The 

 next morning, five who had eaten of the other portion suffered from 

 vertigo, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pains; no stools. The 

 father of the family had convulsive movements of all the extremities ; 

 his pupils were dilated, and did not respond to light; there were 

 double vision, cold sweat, cyanotic skin, distended abdomen, difficulty 

 in swallowing, delirium, mild trismus, and a temperature of 40°. 

 The temperature of the mother, on account of the great collapse, was 

 subnormal ; she had no convulsive movements, but was unconscious 

 for many hours. Dokkum obtained from poisonous cheese, by a 

 modification of the method already given for the separation of tyro- 

 toxicon, a basic substance, which when injected into frogs in doses 

 of 5 mg. caused paralysis, and death within thirty minutes. This 

 investigator thinks that the base thus obtained by himself is not 

 tyrotoxicon, but a curare-like poison for which he suggests the name 

 tyrotoxin. 



For some time after the discovery of tyrotoxicon it was supposed 

 that all cases of cheese poisoning are due to this substance, but sub- 

 sequent investigations have shown that there are other toxins formed 

 in cheese and that tyrotoxicon is a somewhat rare poison. In 1 890, 

 Vaughan, having failed to find any evidence of tyrotoxicon in numer- 

 ous samples of poisonous cheese, was led to test for other toxins. 

 He obtained an albumose, forty drops of an aqueous solution of 

 which when injected under the skin on the back of cats produced 

 vomiting and purging, followed by marked prostration and termi- 

 nating in some instances in death. This substance belongs to the so- 

 called poisonous albumins. From its aqueous solution it is not precip- 

 itated by heat or nitric acid, singly or combined. It is not precipi- 

 tated by saturation with sodium sulphate, nor by a current of carbonic 

 acid gas ; therefore it is not a globulin. It is precipitated by satura- 



