Poisonous Cheese. 
349 
smoked sprats, pork, tainted veal, bacon, and hams. Bacon and 
hams, when not perfectly cured, and fat meat kept in a damp, 
badly ventilated cellar, are very apt to become more or less in- 
jurious to health ; and even butter, after it has turned rancid, 
and similar organic acids are liberated in it which exist in this 
cheese in a free state, acts as a poison in most cases. Singularly 
enough, some people are not affected by these subtle organic 
poisons. The poison of cheese was known in Germany as long 
ago as 1820, and probably even earlier ; a great deal has been 
written on the subject, but we are yet as far as ever from knowing 
the composition of this virulent poison. This, however, we 
know, that it is developed when tlie curd of milk is kept too 
long exposed to the air before it is salted ; or kept in damp, 
badly-ventilated places ; or when too much Avhey is left. In fact, 
all the circumstances which tend to produce an acid curd, and 
to generate free fatty acids, are apt to produce this peculiar 
poison. In old cheese, it is true, we have similar fatty acids, 
l)ut they are here united Avith ammonia, and in this combination 
harmless. What is more strange, poisonous cheese of this 
character, when kept until it becomes quite decayed, loses its 
poisonous properties and becomes wholesome. 
I am well acquainted practically with the sausage and cheese 
poison, for in Germany a great many cases of poisoning with 
cheese have happened, terminating fatally. 
It has been noticed that this peculiar organic poison is par- 
ticularly apt to be generated when curd, before being salted, is 
left for some time in a heap until it begins to ferment. The 
cheese made of such curd ripens more readily than when made 
in the ordinary way ; but at a certain stage of its decay it is a 
poison which acts far more energetically than sulphate of zinc 
or even sulphate of copper. 
It is to be regretted that we have no ready means of detecting 
this insidious poison. One indication, liowever, that there is 
something wrong, is to be found in the strong acid reaction 
which poisonous cheese always exhibits when tested with litmus 
paper. A slight acid reaction marks all fresh cheese ; but whilst 
the outside of good old cheese is ammoniacal, I find that the 
outside of cheese in which this peculiar poison occurs is acid." 
Cases of poisoning by cheese in which no mineral poison 
can be detected occur much more frequently than is generally 
supposed. 
In the same paper in which the North wick trial is reported, 
singularly enough, the following paragraph is copied from the 
' Globe ' — 
"A Family Poisoned through eating Cheese. — On Saturday morning, iuforma- 
