Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-09

CHEESE PoIsoN.-There is in New York
and Brooklyn some excitement and enquiry in
regard to poisonous cheese. In Brooklyn,
persons bought cheese at one of the stores, eat
it, and were poisoned. While enquiry in re-
gard to the matter was going on, a quantity of
cheese was returned from Baltimore by n
trader with the report that all who had eaten
of it had been poisoned. 1t caused severe
pain in the epigastric region, with profuse vom-
iting and purging. In the Baltimore cases
blood was vomited; but no person had died
The cheese had Enthusiastically caused the
startling sickness. 1t had all come from one
wholesale dealer in New York city, who had
received it from Mr. A. B. Martin of Gran
vile, Washington county, in that State. 1t
was carefully analysed by chemists who were
unable to detect the poison, or give any
satisfactory explanation of the matter. We
extract the following from a statement by DIR.
Geo. c. Smith of Brooklyn =
! Gin referring to the different works on pois.
on and ON medical jurispru fence, find that
the poison Of cheese has often been sought for
by the best chemists of Europe, and that the
nature of the poison has not yet been satistac-
torily determined. You will find the best de-
tailed history of cheese poisoning in the first
American edition Of Christison's work on poi
sons, published in 1916.
The author states that cases of cheese poi
soning had occurred in different parts of Eu-
rope, but more frequently in Germany than in
any other country. That during the third
quarter of the last century, cases of poisoning
from cheese were so common that several of
the German States investigated the subject,
and Legislative enactments were passed in con-
sequence.
For long time the prevalent belief was
that the cheese had acquired an impregnation
from copper vessels used in the diaries, and ac-
cordingly the Austrian, Wurtemburg and 9TH
er States prohibited the use of copper for such
purposes. The opinion, however, was proved
by chemical analysis TO be untenable, and the
inquiries of Hanefield and Serturner have now
rendered it probable that the poisonous prop
erty of the cheese resides in two animal acids,
analogous if not incidental with the caseic and
sebacic acids.
In the sixth London edition of Taylors
Medical Jurisprudence, published in 1858, you
will find (page 1917 the following
Cheese has frequently given rise to symp-
toms Of poisoning in Germany, but there is,
"SlIe'e NJ instance VI us having proved IaAl
in England. The symptoms produced by the
cheese have been those of irritant poisoning
The nature of the poison is unknown. In
some cases the irrtant property is undoubted-
ly due TO the purified state OF the curd, or
from certain vegetables on which the COWS
feed"
This means that he cannot explain the mat
ter. The secret of the poison is mystery
which eludes his science. In fact, he calls it
mystery, for which, he hopes, some explana-
ton will be provided hereafter Within few
days, we have heard of one case of cheese
poisoning in this city. In this case the cheese
came from Vermont. Every person in the
family who partook of it was made sick but
the effects, although rather startling, were not
very serious.