Poisonous Cheese by J. H. Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1872

Poisonous Cheese.

By J. H. Waggoner

There has been considerable stir in the vicinity of Battle Creek, and other places, by the report of poisoned cheese. Specimens were sent to Ann Arbor to be analyzed, and Prof. Douglass reports that he found no mineral poison in them; but the poisonous property is peculiar to the cheese itself, so that it turns out not to be poisoned but poisonous cheese. Similar danger has been discovered in England, and Prof. Douglass refers to some reports published in England to corroborate his previously expressed opinion, and the result of his recent investigation, that “it was an organic poison produced in the ripening of the cheese.”

Providence seems to come up wondrously to the aid of the health reform. When people were slow to accept the argument, based on hygienic principles, proving that pork was unfit for food, the trichina strengthened their judgments and hastened their decisions, and thousands have discarded the filthy combination of grease, scrofula, and vermin, from their tables. But cheese—why, everybody believed in cheese—though it was oft declared not to be good food. And now comes the fact, corroborated by scientific analysis, that cheese is poisonous; not always very bad, but in some cases producing serious results.

The following are the extracts produced by Prof. Douglass. It will be readily seen from these that the eating of cheese is a hazardous thing:

“POISONOUS CHEESE.—Some time ago, an action for damages was raised against a Cheshire cheese maker, by a purchaser, on the ground that the cheese supplied was of a poisonous character. The case was mysterious, and a portion of the cheese complained of was sent to Dr. Voelcker, the eminent agricultural chemist, for analysis. His investigation proved beyond a doubt that the cheese was deleterious, but he could not determine the nature of the poisonous matter. ‘We know,’ he said, ‘that it is a poison which is developed when the curd of milk is kept too long exposed to the air before it is salted, or kept in damp, badly ventilated places, and too much whey is left in it.’ In fact, all the circumstances which tend to produce an acid curd, and to generate free fatty acids, are likewise apt to produce this peculiar poison. It has been noticed that this peculiar organic poison is particularly apt to be generated when curd, before being salted, is left for sometime in a heap until it begins to ferment. The cheese made of such curd ripens more readily than when made in the ordinary way, but at a certain stage of its decay is a downright poison.”

“Hunefield says that poisonous cheeses are yellowish red, soft and tough, with harder and darker lumps interspersed; that they have a disagreeable taste, redden litmus, and become flesh-red instead of yellow, under the action of nitric acid.” J. H. WAGGONER.