Amsipt1!'i886arm"}     Tyrotoxicon  in  Ice  Cream,  Milk,  etc.  457 
addition  had  been  made,  yielded  crystals  which  had  the  odor  of  tyro- 
toxicon, and  which,  when  given  to  a  very  large  old  cat,  produced 
frothing  at  the  mouth  and  retching,  but  no  vomiting  or  diarrhoea, 
and  the  next  day  the  animal  was  able  to  eat  food  and  seemed  to  have 
recovered.  I  am  quite  certain  that  had  this  been  administered  to  a 
young  animal,  the  result  would  have  been  more  marked. 
It  is  well  known,  that  milk,  while  undergoing  the  lactic  acid  fer- 
mentation, does  not  possess  any  such  poisonous  properties  as  those 
belonging  to  tyrotoxicon.  There  is  no  evidence,  then,  that  the  poison 
is  connected  in  any  way  with  the  ordinary  decomposition  of  milk. 
The  following  extracts  from  a  letter  just  received  from  the  maker  of 
Lawton  cream  shows  that  the  attention  given  to  the  milk  and  vessels 
was  all  that  could  be  desired : 
11  The  milk  of  which  the  cream  was  made,  was  fresh  and  sweet  morning's 
milk,  only  reserving  with  it  the  cream  of  the  milk  of  the  night  before  from 
the  same  cows.  The  milk  is  kept  in  a  cool,  clean  milk  cellar.  The  custard 
was  made  about  noon  that  day  and  immediately  afterward  the  process  of 
freezing  was  begun.  The  vessels  were  all  thoroughly  cleaned.  There  was  no 
possibility  of  any  impurities  adhering  to  them,  for  they  were  scalded,  wiped 
and  dried  before  being  used.  The  only  ingredients  used  were  the  milk,  cream, 
eggs,  sugar  (best  granulated)  and  the  flavoring. 
"  The  lemon  cream  was  frozen  first,  then  taken  out,  put  into  the  packers, 
and  packed  solid  with  ice  and  salt.  Then  the  vanilla  cream  was  frozen  in  the 
same  manner.  I  used  the  best  Jenning's  extract,  about  the  usual  quantity, 
not  in  excess.  The  cream  was  eaten  in  the  evening  by  many  people  of  the 
village.  All  of  those  who  ate  of  the  vanilla  cream  were  made  sick,  and  none 
of  those  who  ate  of  the  lemon  cream  suffered  any  inconvenience. 
"  Now,  the  milk  was  the  same  in  both,  milked  from  the  same  cows  the  same 
morning  that  the  cream  was  made,  so  that  there  was  no  difference  in  the  cus- 
tard used  in  making  the  vanilla  cream  and  the  lemon  cream,  but  it  turned  out 
that  the  one  made  people  sick  and  the  other  did  not. 
''We  have  continued  making  cream  since  in  the  same  manner  without  the 
least  change  of  the  ingredients  or  the  apparatus,  except  we  have  not  used 
vanilla  extract,  but  lemon  and  pineapple,  and  it  has  been  freely  eaten  and  no 
one  has  been  made  sick  by  it. 
"  Clearly  in  my  mind  the  milk  does  not  account  for  the  trouble.  One  thing 
further :  of  course  the  cream  which  you  examined,  has  been  made  since  the 
ninth  day  of  June,  and  may  have  undergone  changes  which  would  result  in 
generating  the  poison  referred  to  in  the  papers  [certain  newspaper  accounts 
of  the  finding  of  the  poison],  and  which  would  not  have  been  found  in  the 
cream  had  it  been  examined  when  fresh. 
"  If  there  is  anything  farther  that  I  can  furnish  you  in  regard  to  these  facts 
or  circumstances  in  connection  with  this  ice  cream,  I  will  be  willing  at  any 
and  all  times  to  give  the  fullest  information  possible.  Hoping  to  receive  the 
correct  analysis  soon,  I  remain  yours  respectfully,         "J.  TV.  JOHNSON.'' 
