1912] Editoriais 207 



In a circular with this title, Director Russell of the Wisconsin 



A'gricultural Experiment Station^ has recently given an interesting 



summary of the perfection of the Babcock quantitative test for milk- 



rru ~- t ^ fat and the influence which it has exerted on 

 The Coming 01 age 



of the dairy science and practice throughout the world. 



Babcock test Milk and its numerous products play so impor- 

 tant a röle in the economy of the home and in the dietary of the sick 

 that the significance of Professor Babcock's contribution cannot re- 

 main unnoticed in the annals of the medical world. The simple, 

 yet highly accurate Babcock method of estimating the fat content 

 of milk and cream finds daily application not only in dozens of 

 analytic laboratories, but likewise in hundreds of creameries, in milk 

 establishments, and even in the office of the busy practitioner of 

 medicine, where a few inexpensive devices enable him to gauge the 

 richness of a breast-milk or a modified milk mixture with facility. 



Every pediatrist appreciates what the Babcock test means for the 

 exigencies of practice and successful feeding. Today, twenty-two 

 years after the introduction of this procedure which, as Ex-Gover- 

 nor Hoard remarked, has made dairymen more honest than the 

 Bible because it has removed all opportunity for them to profit by 

 any deceit, it is interesting to note that no change has been made in 

 the essential features of the test during all this period. The tech- 

 nic of the Operation remains the same as when the details were pub- 

 lished by Dr. Babcock in 1890. The Stimulus which it has given 

 to scientific dairying, to the standardization and improvement of our 

 milk-supplies, to the possibilities of rational infant-feeding, and to 

 what these in turn involve in the direction of the public health, is 

 scarcely appreciated by the medical profession. Director Russell 

 has written that the Babcock test frees the dairy farmer from the 

 fetters of past traditions, and removes him from the category of 

 "mossbacks." The influences here referred to have in fact been 

 even more far-reaching. 



An additional feature deserves mention: No patent was taken 

 out on either the method or the apparatus required to carry out the 

 Babcock test. There zuas no copyrighting of a name — no commer- 



' University of Wisconsin Agriculitiral Experiment Station, Circular of 

 Information, No. 2^, 1912. 



