GALACTOTOXISMUS. 215 



tion with ammonium sulphate, and this fact distinguishes it from the 

 peptons. In 1895 Vaughan and Perkins obtained from a piece of 

 cheese which had proved fatal to one man, two bacilli, one of which 

 elaborates an active toxin ; both filtered and heated cultures kill ani- 

 mals promptly. Vaughan and McClymonds ^ examined sixty-five 

 samples of cheese from as many different manufacturers. Of these, 

 forty-nine were what is ordinarily known as American green cheese. 

 These were made in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, 

 and Canada. Eight of the forty-nine samples were sent to the 

 laboratory because persons eating them had suffered from nausea, 

 vomiting and purging; the other samples were not known to be 

 poisonous. Everyone of the forty-nine samples of American green 

 cheese furnished cultures which killed white rats, guinea-pigs 

 and rabbits. The toxicogenic germ in all these samples belongs to 

 the colon group, and whether or not a given sample of green cheese 

 unpleasantly affects the consumer will depend upon the amount and 

 virulence of the germ present in the cheese. Vaughan and Cooley ^ 

 have shown that the colon toxin is contained in the germ cell from 

 which it does not, at least under ordinary conditions, diffuse into the 

 culture medium. This toxin may be heated in water to a very high 

 temperature without destruction of its toxicity, as is illustrated by 

 the following experiment : 200 mg. of the crude toxin was placed 

 with 10 c.c. of water in a tube which was sealed and heated to 184° 

 for thirty minutes. On opening the tube the content was found to 

 be milky and microscopical examination showed a granular mass 

 containing a few unbroken cells. Portions of this heated substance 

 injected into guinea-pigs caused death, and autopsy showed the 

 lesion usually found in these animals when killed with colon toxin. 

 Apparatus has been devised for obtaining the colon toxin in large 

 amount ' and it has been found that with a very virulent culture the 

 powdered germ is often sufficiently toxic to kill guinea-pigs of 200 

 gram weight in doses of -^ mg. 



Galactotoxismus. — ^Tyrotoxicon has been found in milk in numer- 

 ous instances, having first been detected in this fluid in 1885, soon 

 after its discovery in cheese. In 1886 Newton and Wallace detected 

 this poison in milk which seriously affected a large number of persons 

 at Long Branch. The poisonous milk came solely from one dairy- 

 man and investigation showed the following condition of affairs : 

 The cows were milked at the unusual hours of midnight and noon, and 

 the noon's milk — that which alone was followed by illness — was 

 placed while hot in the cans, and then, without any attempt at cool- 

 ing, carted eight miles during the warmest part of the day in a very 

 hot month. During this time the unknown germ which elaborates 



' Jacobi Festschrift, p. 108. 



' Journal of the American Medical Association, 1901 ; also American Medicine, 1901. 



' Transactions of the Association of American Physiciaiis, 1901. 



