JUDGING CHEESE. 115 
Red spots broke out first in 1883 in a mild form in St. Law- 
rence County, N. Y. In 1884 it was worse, occurring mostly 
in the fall months. It developed at a factory at Hailesboro in 
1892 and the factory was eventually abandoned for cheesemak- 
ing. Other factories in New York and Canada have been trou- 
bled but it has not appeared in other parts of the country. 
Harding and Smith of the Geneva Experiment Station have car- 
ried on investigations which show that the factory is usually 
the main seed bed, though the bacillus is found in the milk of 
certain dairies. 
If all of the apparatus is put into the cheese vat, then cov- 
ered tightly and a jet of live steam turned on the utensils for 
an hour, and this operation repeated three times a week, the 
trouble can be practically eliminated. 
223. Poison Cheese. 
There are occasional reports of people being poisoned by 
eating cheese. Fortunately these cases are quite rare, but as 
they are isolated it is difficult for scientists to trace the full 
history of the cheese. Professor Vaughan, of Michigan, some 
years ago carried on quite an extensive investigation of the 
chemical nature of such cheese and isolated a poison called tyro- 
toxicon. This poison causes cramps, acts as a purgative and 
paralyzes the lower limbs. The author’s attention was called 
to the case of a factory in which some poison cheese had been 
made. The factory was kept in a neat and tidy manner so that 
it is not probable the poison resulted from carelessness at the 
factory. The maker stated, however, that every cheese contain- 
ing poison had been made when the milk was held several days 
before making into cheese, and in no case was poison formed in 
the cheese when the milk was made up each day. The great ma- 
jority of cases of ice cream poisoning have been traced to church 
socials, where the cream was gathered and held several days be- 
fore freezing. This evidence would indicate that the poison is 
more likely to occur when the milk is held several days before 
being made up. 
