102 REPORT OF DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY OF THE 
The milk for this cheese when mixed in the vat contained over 
46 million germs per cc. Seventy-two per ct. were lactic acid, 15 
per ct. gas producers and 13 per ct. were inert forms. ‘The lique- 
fiers were very scarce in all of the samples. No yeasts developed 
on any of the plates. 
Immediately after coagulation of the milk the whey contained 
only 23 million germs per cc. but when the whey was drawn, 
ninety minutes later, the germ content had increased to 43 millions 
per cc. The curd in the vat at 2 p. m. contained 16 millions per 
gram and two hours later, after being salted and laying one hour 
in press the number had increased to 94 millions per gram. Five 
hours later the number of germs was determined at 26 millions and 
plates made after a further interval of two hours showed 105 mil- 
lions per gram. The maximum germ content of 178 millions per 
gram was obtained after the cheese had been 19 hours in press. 
The wide and rapid variations observed in the germ content of 
the whey and the curd deserve an explanation. While the prepara- 
tion of a correct sample of the fresh curd is difficult it is easy 
to get a representative one in the case of the whey; yet the fluctua- 
tion in germ content is almost equally pronounced in both. While 
our data are restricted to preliminary observations on three cheeses 
the fltictuations in germ content seem to stand in a general rela- 
tion to the stages of manufacture. On this account we are inclined 
to the belief that these variations in our results are not due to 
faulty technique, as we at first supposed, but are due to changes in 
temperature and in physical and chemical environment during the 
process of manufacture. 
The numbers of the various types of germs found at each exami- 
nation are given in Table XXIII. 
All of these types of germs have been found in one or more 
of the previous cheeses. This cheese is conspicuous in the absence 
of any other than the lactic acid type of germs after the curd was 
put to press. | 
Graphical representation.— Graph IX (page 105) brings out the 
extremely high germ content during the first day. The decrease in 
the germ content was unusually rapid so that after 19 days the 
number present was very much below the average of the cheeses 
studied. 
