808 
The Growth of Veterinm'y Pathology. 
One point which certainly has a direct practical bearing on 
dairy work may seiwe to conclude this imperfect sketch of milk 
fermentations. 
Butter op finest aroma, “gilt-edged butter,” as it is sometimes 
called in butter-making competitions, can only be produced, accord- 
ing to the opinion of competent judges, by ripening the cream before 
churning to exactly the right point, and by exercising great dis- 
cretion as to the amount of washing to which the granulated butter 
is subjected in the churn. In fact, on this point the requisite con- 
dition for fine flavour clashes with that for keeping quality, since 
for the latter the fresher the cream and the more the butter is 
Avashed the better. Now the aroma which is communicated to the 
butter during the ripening of the cream is, in all probability, if 
not demonstrably, due to the growth of suitable microbes in the 
cream during this stage. Storch and AVeigmann have inde- 
pendently succeeded in isolating from ripening cream an organism 
which communicates the desired aroma to fresh cream when inocu- 
lated into it. Dr. Conn tefils us that pure cultures of this ferment 
are coming into use in butter factories in Germany as a means of 
correctly ripening fresh cream with ease and certainty. Should 
such a proceeding be found generally practicable, it may certainly 
be expected to add to the keeping qualities of butter without 
detriment to the greatest refinement of flaAnur. 
A point not alluded to by Dr. Conn is the formation in milk 
and cheese, under peculiar conditions, of a A’iolent poison, Avhich 
has received the name of tyrofoxicon. The many recorded cases of 
poisoning by eating cheese in Avhich no suspicion of adulteration 
or foul play existed remained unexplained until this substance was 
discovered in a sample of poisonous cheese. It can easily be 
extracted and even crystallised ; in one case 7 or 8 grains of the 
substance Avas extracted from about 30 lb. of poisonous cheese. 
Alilk kept in a corked bottle, half-full, for tAvo or three months is 
knoAvn to deA’elop the same poison. It is clearly a result of some 
fermentation, the exact nature of Avhich is not made out. The 
organisms producing this and similar poisons are the microbes of 
putrefaction, many of them anaerobic, and under normal conditions 
they do not obtain a footing. 
J. M. II. Munro. 
THE GROWTH OF VETERINARY PATHOLOGY.' 
Within the last tAventy years veterinary science has made greater 
strides than it did during the preceding eighty. EA-ery branch of 
veterinary knoAvledge has shnred in this advance, but in none has 
the progress been so rapid as in the domain of Pathology. Patho- 
' Extracts from the Inaugural Address delivered at the Royal Veterinary 
College, October 5, 1892, by Professor McFadyean, B.Sc., M.U., &c. 
