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niilk and milk products of ‘ ‘ nymphomanous ' ' cows is even more 
marked. 
Fifth. As shown by Vaughan and others (2), highly toxic sub- 
stances are produced in milk by bacteria. The earlier investigations 
on the subject of bacterial poisons in milk and milk products were 
confined almost entirely to poisonous cheese, the poisonous proper- 
ties of which were formerly ascribed to various fatty acids. In 1852, 
however, Schlossberger (see Vaughan & Xovy, ibid.), from experi- 
ments with pure fatty acids, demonstrated that these substances 
are not sufficiently toxic to account for the highly toxic nature of 
poisonous cheese. In 1883 and 1884 an epidemic of* cheese poisoning 
occurred in Michigan, which led Vaughan and his students to an 
exhaustive investigation of the subject. The outcome of these 
studies was the isolation from poisonous cheese, in 1884, of a crystal- 
line substance, to which Vaughan gave the name of tyrotoxicon, 
and which was believed by him to be a cliazo derivative of benzene. 
Chemically it was found to be very unstable, its aqueous solution 
decomposing when heated to 90° C. Tyrotoxicon has since been 
isolated, in many instances, from poisonous cheese by other investi- 
gators. It has also been detected in poisonous milk. In 1886 
Xewton and Wallace (7) foimd the poison in a milk supply at Long 
Branch which had seriously affected a number of persons. In 1887 
Firth (8), an English army surgeon, isolated it from the milk which 
had poisoned the soldiers of a garrison in India where he was sta- 
tioned, and in the same year Vaughan (9) investigated a number of 
cases of violent milk poisoning occurring at Milan, three of which 
had resulted fatally. Fresh milk, inoculated with the vomit, stomach 
contents, or an aqueous extract of the intestines, gave, after standing 
twenty-four hours at 25°-30° C., a sufficient amount of tyrotoxicon 
to enable these investigators to recognize nitrogen and phenol 
among the products of its decomposition, the latter being recog- 
nized by precipitation with bromine water and by other well-known 
tests. In these cases the coroner's jury, before whom this evidence 
was submitted, rendered a verdict of death from poisoning by tyro- 
toxicon. Ca m m an (10) reported 23 cases of milk poisoning attributed 
to tyrotoxicon, and Kinnicutt (11) isolated the poison from milk 
which had stood in unclean vessels for some time. Vaughan and 
Xovy (12) and others found tyrotoxicon in poisonous ice cream, 
and still others have obtained it from custards and other desserts 
prepared from milk or cream. Indeed it would appear from these 
investigations that any foodstuff prepared from milk is liable to 
contain this poison. In his later writings on the subject, however, 
Vaughan (13) takes the view that tyrotoxicon is not the only poison 
