CHE 
Before the time of Scheele, our chemical knowledge 
of milk confuted of little more than the common opera¬ 
tions of the dairy, and the refults of the inaccurate me¬ 
thod of decompolition by fire. This celebrated chemiit, 
however, relates a variety of intereiting experiments on 
milk, which confirm all the above properties of .cheefe. 
If any vegetable or mineral acid be mixed with-milk, the 
cheefe feparates, and, if aflifted by heat, coagulates into 
a mats. The quantity of cheefe is lefs when a mineral 
acid is ufed. Neutral falts, and all earthy and metallic 
frits, will feparate the cheele from the whey. Sugar, and 
gum arabic, produce the fame effedt. Cauftic alkalis will 
diffolve the curds, by the afiiftance of a boiling heat, and 
acids occafion.a precipitation again. It does not appear, 
however, that the caceous part is diffolved in milk by 
means of an alkali, as was afcertained by adding an acid 
to milk, which ought to have produced a neutral fait, 
if this had been the cafe ; but it did not. The true rea- 
fon why acids caufe the caceous matter to feparate is, 
that they combine with it, and form a compound much 
lefs foluble in water than the cheefe itfelf. Eight parts 
of water will diffolve one part of the curd precipitated by 
a mineral acid ; fo much of the acid having been pre- 
vioufly mixed with the water as to give it a four tafte. 
Vegetable acids have very little folvent power upon curds; 
which accounts for a greater quantity of curd being ob¬ 
tained when a vegetable acid is ufed. Scheele thinks that 
neutral falts, gums, and fugar, produce a coagulation of 
curds by virtue of their ftronger attraction for the water. 
He coniiders cheefe as an animal gelatinous fubftance, or 
rather ferous matter; for he would wifli to confine the 
word jelly to fuch adhefive animal fubftances as become 
more fluid by heat, whereas ferum coagulates at a certain 
temperature. He found that curds, after repeated ab- 
ftradtions of nitrous acid, left a white refidue confining 
of nitrated lime and an animal earth. This animal earth, 
which may be fuppofedto be phofphorated lime, amount¬ 
ed to one tenth of the whole weight. The white of egg, 
in the opinion of this author, is nothing elfe but pure 
cheefe. When this fubftance is coagulated by means of 
heat, it may be diffolved by boiling in very dilute mine¬ 
ral acids, which folution is again precipitated by adding 
fome concentrated acid; a phenomenon that likewiie 
happens with the acid folutions of curd or cheefe. 
The goodnefs of cheefe undoubtedly depends on the 
richnefs of the milk from which it is made; as does the 
milk on the luxuriance and fweetnefs of the paftures 
wherein the cattle feed. It is to this circumftance, and 
not to any peculiarity in the art of making, that we are 
to attribute the particular excellence of cheefe of diffe¬ 
rent places. Chefhire has been for ages celebrated for 
the fuperior quantity, as well as quality, of its cheefe; 
an advantage that county derives from its rich and exten- 
flve paftures. Next to this, Gloucefterfhire furnifhes a 
kind of cheefe, perhaps higher and mellower in flavour; 
but by no means in fuch quantity ; although a very prin¬ 
cipal part of what is called both Angle and double GIou- 
cefter cheefes, is made in the adjoining counties of Somer- 
fet and North Wilts ; where the paftures are fweeter, but 
not fo luxuriant, as in Chefhire. The high relifh of 
cheefes made in fome particular parifhes, is perhaps at¬ 
tributable to the double advantage of rich paftures, and 
the farmers allowing little or no'butter to be taken from 
the milk. Chedder cheefe feems to have derived its cele¬ 
brity from the aromatic herbage peculiar to the Mendip 
hills and dales, which partly furround the village; and 
which give alio a fine flavour to the mutton bred and 
fatted in that particular part of Somerfetfhire. The Stil¬ 
ton cheefe, however, among epicures, has obtained a de¬ 
cided pre-eminence over every other kind produced in 
this kingdom ; infomuch that it is ftyled the Parmefan 
of England. The caufe in fome degree is in the excel¬ 
lence of the paftures; but much more in the policy of 
■ the farmer, who never deprives the milk of its cream, 
but takes more than the value of the butter in the high 
Vol. IV. No. 184. ■ 0 
CHE 137 
price of his cheefe. The real Parmefan, fo named from 
the province of Parma in Italy, where alone it is made, 
certainly derives its fine flavour from the luxuriant paf¬ 
tures on the banks of the Po, which is aland literally 
flowing with milk and honey. Here the very air is per¬ 
fumed with the fragrance of the fields; and the cattle 
grave with unreftrained freedom ; the milk is not depriv¬ 
ed of its cream, but goes into the vat juft as it comes 
from the cow ; and hence is produced the fineft cheefe in 
the world. 
CHEESE-REN'NET,/ See Gallium, and Runnet. 
CHEE'SECAKE,/. A cake made of loft curds, fugar, 
and butter; 
Where many a man, at variance with his wife, 
With foft’ning mead and cheefe'cake ends the ftrife. King. 
CHEE'SELIP, /. [cyphb, Sax.] A bag in which ren¬ 
net for cheefe is made and kept; being the ftomach-bag 
of a young fucking calf that has never tafted any other 
food but milk, when the curd was indigefted. 
CHEE'SEMONGER, f. One who deals in cheefe. 
CHEE'SEPRESS,yi The prefs in which the curds are 
prefled : 
The cleanly cheefeprefs fhe could never turn. 
Her aukward flit did ne’er employ the churn; Gay. 
CHEE'SEVATjy! The wooden cafe in which the curds 
are confined when they are prefled into cheefe.—His fenfe 
occafions the carelefs ruftic to judge the fun no bigger 
than a cheefevat. Glanville. 
CHEE'SY, adj. Having the nature or form of cheefe. 
Acids mixed with them precipitate a tophaceous chalky 
matter, but not a cheefy fubftance. Arbutbnot. 
CHEF-BOUTON'NEja town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Two Sevres, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftridt of Melle : eight miles fouth of Melle. 
CHEFE'TE KAN, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the 
province of Caramania : 100 miles eaft of Cogni. 
CHEF'FES, atown ofFrance,in the department of the 
Mayne and Loire, and chief place of a canton, in the dif¬ 
tridt of Chateauneuf: three leagues north of Angers. 
CHEG FORD, a fmall town, in the county of Devon : 
fifteen miles weft of Exeter. 
CHEGIASAR', a town of Perfia, in the IrakAgemi: 
100 miles weft-fouth-weft of Ainadan. 
CHE'GOE, or Nicua,/ the Indian name of an infedt 
common in Mexico, and other hot countries, where it is 
called pique. It is a fpecies of the acarus, or itch infedt. 
It fixes upon the feet, and, breaking the cuticle, neftles 
betwixt that and the true fkin, where it multiplies with 
a rapidity almoft incredible. The poor, by an habitual 
negledt of their perfons, luff’er thefe infedts fometimes to 
multiply fo far as to make large holes in their flefli, and 
even to occaflon dangerous wounds. 
CHEHAW', a town of United America, in the ftate 
of Georgia: 165 miles weft-fouth-weft of Augufta. 
CHEl'LOCACE, f. [from a lip, and y.ay.ov, an 
evil.] The lip-evil; a lwelling of the lips, or canker in 
the mouth. 
CHEIRAN'THUS, / [from the Arabic keiri ; altered 
by .Linnaeus into a name in the Greek form, from a 
hand, and a> 9 o;, a flower.] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs tetradynamia, orderfiliquofa, natural order liliquofae, 
cruciformes, or cruciferas. The generic characters are— 
Calyx :perianthium four leaved, comprefled: leaflets lance¬ 
olate, concave, eredt, parallel-converging, deciduous ; the 
two outer gibbous at the bale. Corolla: four-petalled, cru¬ 
ciform. Petals roundifh, longer than the calyx, claws the 
length ofthecalyx. Stamina: filaments fix, tubulate,paral¬ 
lel, the length of the calyx : two ofthem within thegibbous 
leaflets of the calyx, a little fhorter than the other four. 
Anthers eredt, bifid at the bafe, acute at the tip, and re¬ 
flected. A nedtareous gland furrounds the bafe of the 
fhorter ftamens on each fide. Piftillum : germ prifhiatic, 
four-cornered, the length of the ftamens, marked with 
N n a tubercle 
