Pvisonous Cheese. 
347 
have not myself found it in choose^. Though not absolutoly 
injmious, such a use of alunm is quite unnecessary; for the 
hea\ ing^ of cheese can be entirely prevented by proper manage- 
ment, and all articles of food should be entirely free from sub- 
stances which have any medicinal effect. 
(juite recently an instance of supposed poisoning by cheese 
was brought under my notice by Mr. Henry White, of Warring- 
ton. In April last, Mr. Roger Bate, cheese-factor, Warrington 
and Tarporley, brought an action in the Northwick County Court 
to recover damages sustained by the purchase of a dairy of 
cheese, a great portion of which was said to be unfit for human 
food. In the trial the following particulars were stated. In 
August, 1861, Mr. Bate called at Mr. Buller's farm. Little 
Badsworth, with a view to jiurchasing his dairy, and, after 
inspecting a quantity of cheese and approving of it, he agreed 
to purchase the whole season's make at the rate of 60s. per cwt, 
of course expecting that all the cheese delivered to him would 
be a good marketable commodity. 
The first lot was delivered in the course of September, and 
some of it sold to the Warrington workhouse ; but the cheese 
was returned, with an intimation from the governor that it was 
unfit for food, being found to cause sickness and vomiting to a 
very violent degree. 
Another portion of the same lot was sent to Messrs. Fletcher, 
of Manchester. After it had remained in their hands a con- 
siderable time, they met with a customer in the person of 
a Mr. Hulton, of Failsworth, who, in a few days returned it, 
declaring it to be poisonous. Mr. Bate then put three cheeses 
into the hands of a person named Fay, who was in the habit of 
attending the St. Helen's market, but complaints were soon 
made to the public officers of the place that Fay was vending a 
poisonous article. Another hawker, of the name of Pemberton, 
also received a cheese, which he brought to Northwick, where 
several people were taken ill after partaking of the cheese. A 
number of people were examined, who all bore witness to the 
poisonous character of the cheese. 
Mr. H. White, of Warrington, with his accustomed prompt- 
ness and zeal for the interests of agriculture, procured from Mr. 
Bate a piece of cheese that had made eight persons out of nine 
ill that had partaken of it, and forwarded it direct to me for 
examination. 
In due course I sent the following Report to Mr. White : — 
" This cheese presented nothing in appearance which may be 
regarded as an indication of its spoiled condition or unwholesome 
quality. The taste, it is true, is sharp, peculiar, and quite 
