The best method the experts advise for guarding against the danger of poisoning is to refrain from eating green cheese.

Every day we hear of one case of poisoning or more, which has made green cheese a danger in the field of public health, especially since some of those who ate it perished as a result of this poisoning.

As for the signs of poisoning by green cheese: some hours after eating the contaminated cheese (usually after two to four hours), the poisoned person feels a bitter discomfort, then nausea followed by repeated vomiting, diarrhea, palpitation of the heart, cold sweat, a drop in blood pressure, and weakness of the heart.

Sometimes the poisoning proves fatal within 24 hours, if the attack is severe and the victim of slight build.

As for the causes of the poison-ing, some have attributed them to several factors:

First — verdigris in the vessels used for making the cheese.

Second — the animals' eating of certain poisonous herbs.

Third — contamination of the milk during the cheese-making process by the venom of an insect or a venomous animal such as snakes and other reptiles.

The truth is that all these causes are incorrect, since poisoning by green cheese belongs to the category of poisoning by food-stuffs, as with meats, fish, and

sugary foods such as "cream," for example.

Green cheese is produced by the curdling — that is, the coagulation — of goat's milk or cow's milk; it is sold at once for consumption, or is salted and sold after a few days, without being given time enough to ferment and become one of the ripened cheeses such as kashkaval, Roquefort, and others.

The milk used for making this cheese is warmed and rennet is added to it; it is not boiled, since boiling makes it unfit for curdling.

Green cheese becomes poisonous as a result of its con-tamination with "staphylococcus" germs, which multiply rapidly and secrete a poisonous substance called "toxin" that causes these mishaps to those who eat green cheese. The "toxin" is stable and is not affected by high heat. Hence boiling or scalding the cheese is of no use, and the prevailing belief that boiling or scalding the cheese wards off the harm is an incorrect belief.

"Staphylococcus" is a parasitic germ — that is, it lives upon other, non-living matter — and it is found abundantly in nature. This germ is found abundantly in a great number of persons, on the skin of their bodies, in their nasal passages, in the tonsils, and on their hands, where it causes them no harm whatever. We find these germs in animals, especially in the udder, particu-larly if the udder is affected with

inflammation or has been affected with inflammation at some time past. The "staphylococcus" germ has several sources, and its spread is aided by the ignorance of livestock raisers and cheese makers in matters of public health and cleanliness.

There are many kinds of the staphylococcus germ, but fortu-nately only one among these kinds is poisonous.

This poisonous kind finds a favor-able environment for its multi-plication in the milk prepared for cheese, and it secretes the poisonous "toxin" substance that causes the cases of poisoning.

The activity of the "staphylo-coccus" germ begins when the milk is warmed, and the germ continues its work throughout the curdling and straining process, and even after the pressing of the cheese into rounds.

Salt limits the multiplication of most bacteria, but it has no effect whatever upon the "staphylococ-cus" germ; indeed, salt helps the "staphylococcus" germ to multiply in an indirect way, by preventing the other germs from growing — those germs which restrain the work of the poisonous "staphylo-coccus" germ.

There are several factors that help to make the cheese poi-sonous at the time of its making, and it is worth setting these factors out in order:

First — contamination of the milk with the microbe by the animal itself, since it