Chem. [mod. L., f. Gr. τῡρός cheese + τοξικόν poison.] A poisonous ptomaine (diazobenzene hydroxide, C6H5N.N.OH), produced by a microbe in stale cheese and milk; cheese-poison.
1886. Sci. Amer., 21. Aug., 112/3. About a year ago, Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, of the University of Michigan, succeeded in isolating from some samples of cheese … a highly poisonous ptomaine, which he named tyrotoxicon (cheese poison)…. Further investigations have led to the discovery that tyrotoxicon may be developed in milk.
So Tyrotoxin [TOXIN] = tyrotoxicon; Tyrotoxism, cheese-poisoning.
1899. Cagney, trans. Jaksch’s Clin. Diagn., v. (ed. 4), 189. Vaughan obtained one of these bodies (tyrotoxin) from rotten cheese and bad milk.
1900–13. Dorland, Med. Dict., Tyrotoxism, cheese-poisoning.
