2i 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of Health, during 1883 and 1884. Although none of these were 

 fatal, the illness was in some instances alarming, and the evil 

 effects were confined to twelve different cheeses. Samples of these 

 were sent to Prof. Vaughan for analysis. The cheese exhibited 

 no unusual taste or odor, but a dog, with keener instinct than the 

 human, selected a piece of untainted cheese in preference. The de- 

 tection of the poison proved to be a difficult task. The ptomaine 

 was volatile and unstable, and a method had to be invented for its 

 isolation. An alcoholic extract of the cheese fixed the poison in a 

 fatty acid. An aqueous extract was made and evaporated, when 

 the poison also disappeared. Two years of patient study perfected 

 the process, and Prof. Vaughan succeeded in separating the 

 ptomaine in crystalline shape. During the same year he ob- 

 tained tyrotoxicon from milk kept in stoppered ■ bottles in the 

 laboratory. 



In 1886 there occurred some cases of mysterious poisoning at 

 Long Branch. Twenty-four persons became suddenly ill at one . 

 hotel, nineteen at another, and in the following week thirty more 

 complained of similar symptoms. The investigations conducted 

 by the chemists, Newton and Wallace, established the fact that 

 tyrotoxicon was the cause of the sickness. The conditions in 

 which the poison was generated are given in the report as follows : 

 " The noon's milking — which alone was followed by illness — was 

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

 cooling, carted eight miles during the warmest part of the day in 

 a very hot month " ! Milk -poisoning in Iowa and Michigan was 

 subsequently traced to the formation of tyrotoxicon ; and, in 

 India,* an English surgeon, Firth, discovered the same ptomaine 

 in milk that occasioned sickness. 



It might be supposed that so favorable a nidus as custard would 

 not be overlooked by the mischievous bacillus. After Vaughan's 

 method of isolating the ptomaine was made known, many analyses 

 of poisonous ice-cream and cream-puffs testified to its industry. 

 Wherever this toxic agent was identified, the circumstances at- 

 tending its growth were carefully studied, and the care of the 

 milk, cream, or custard was found to be faulty. In some instances 

 cleanliness had been strictly observed, but other conditions induc- 

 ing fermentation had been overlooked. In the milk-poisoning at 

 Long Branch proper airing and cooling of the milk were neg- 

 lected. In Milan, Mich., three fatal cases occurred in the tidy 

 home of a farmer's family. Examination showed that the but- 

 tery where the milk was kept had a new floor laid over decaying 

 boards, and some of the dirt accumulations between these, taken 

 to the laboratory, generated tyrotoxicon in fresh milk. In Lawton, 

 Mich., the custards prepared for freezing stood for some hours in 



* "Indian Medical Journal," Calcutta, 188V, vol. vi, p. 1. 



