GALACTOTOXISMUS. 219 



Ice cream, frozen custard, cream puffs, and other articles of food 

 consisting largely of milk, are frequently harmful. The injurious 

 effects of these substances have . been attributed to plants eaten by 

 the animals, and the flavoring and coloring matters used in the prep- 

 aration of these foods. Even within recent years the claim has 

 been put forward that ice cream poisoning is due to artificially pre- 

 pared vanillin, but vanilla extracts used in the preparation of foods, 

 which prove to be poisonous, have been swallowed in large quanti- 

 ties by chemists and have been administered to animals without the 

 slightest effect. It has also been claimed that ice cream often owes 

 its poisonous properties to small quantities of zinc or tin dissolved 

 during the process of freezing. This statement is perfectly absurd 

 when we find, as we frequently do, that a sample of ice cream will 

 act more powerfully as an emetic than will sulphate of zinc, grain for 

 grain. It is within the range of possibility that poisonous extracts 

 may be used in flavoring milk preparations and it is a well-known 

 fact that chromate of lead has been found in cream puffs. But it is 

 certainly true that neither flavoring agent nor metals are account- 

 able for the injurious effects observed to follow the eating of poison- 

 ous ice cream and similar milk products. Moreover, ice cream 

 flavored with chocolate and that flavored with lemon have also been 

 observed to be poisonous, and vanilla ice cream is more frequently 

 poisonous for the very good reason that this flavoring is used more 

 largely than any other, and possibly than all others combined. 



Vaughan and Novy have found tyrotoxicon in numerous samples 

 of poisonous ice cream and custard. Schearer reported the same 

 poison in both vanilla and lemon ice cream which made many sick 

 at Nugent, la. AUaben observed numerous cases poisoned with 

 lemon ice cream, and Welford has obtained tyrotoxicon from custard 

 flavored with lemon. It must not be inferred, however, that this is 

 the only toxin that is found in ice cream and other milk compounds. 

 In 1896, Vaughan and Perkins^ reported the detection of a new 

 toxin in both ice cream and cheese. This substance differs from 

 tyrotoxicon chemically inasmuch as it is not removed from alkaline 

 solutions by extraction with ether. Physiologically its action on the 

 heart closely resembles that of muscarin or neurin. Pathologically 

 it induces a high degree of local inflammation when injected subcu- 

 taneously or intra- peritoneally j and after death the contractions of 

 the intestines so characteristic of tyrotoxicon poisoning were never 

 found, although more than 200 animals were experimented upon in 

 this investigation. In the persons poisoned with this food, symptoms 

 appeared within from three to six hours and at first consisted of 

 nausea which in all instances was followed by vomiting. Diarrhoea 

 was present in the majority but not in all. The vomiting was ac- 

 companied by sharp pains through the abdomen, and it is stated that 



• Archivf, Hygiene, 27. 



