CHEESE AS A DIGESTER. 
237 
Smethurst, that this was to him a new fact in science, and it 
was equally new to all who had the candour and honesty to 
avow it, and who were not ashamed to acknowledge that 
they had been in the habit of using copper without applying 
any other method of testing it before use than that which 
was originally suggested by Reinsch. On this occasion I 
procured from five gentlemen, of great repute in the three 
kingdoms as analysts in cases of poisoning, samples of the 
copper which they had been in the habit of employing in 
their analyses since the introduction of Reinsch’s process. 
In each instance arsenic was detected in the copper, and in 
two of the samples the proportion was greater than in the 
copper gauze which had been employed in our analysis. 
{To be continued .) 
CHEESE AS A DIGESTER. 
As a digester, as some appropriately call it, cheese— 
that which is decayed and mouldy being preferred by 
connoisseurs — is often eaten after dinner. The action 
which experience seems to have proved it to possess, in 
aiding the digestion of what has previously been eaten, is 
both curious and interesting, and has had some light thrown 
upon it by recent chemical research. When the curd of 
milk is exposed to the air in a moist state, for a few days, 
at a moderate temperature, it begins gradually to decay, to 
emit a disagreeable odour, and to ferment. When in this 
state, it possesses the property, in certain circumstances, 
of inducing a species of chemical change and fermentation 
in other moist substances with which it is mixed or is 
brought into contact. It acts after the same manner as 
sour leaven does when mixed with sweet dough. Now, old 
and partially decayed cheese acts in a similar way when 
introduced into the stomach. It causes chemical changes 
gradually to commence among the particles of the food 
which has previously been eaten, and thus facilitates the 
dissolution which necessarily precedes digestion. It is only 
some kinds of cheese, however, which will effect this pur¬ 
pose. Those are generally considered the best in which some 
kind of cheese-mould has established itself. Hence the 
mere eating of a morsel of cheese after dinner does not 
necessarily promote digestion. If too new, or of improper 
quality, it will only add to the quantity of food with which 
the stomach is already overloaded, and will have to await 
its turn for digestion by the ordinary process.— Chemistry of 
Comm,on Life . 
xxxiv. ]7 
17 
