30 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN STUDIES 



here was a field of study which should be further cultivated 

 in behalf of the dairy industry. The result was the appoint- 

 ment of Dr. H. L. Russell as head of the department of 

 bacteriology in the University and Bacteriologist to the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station. The uniqueness of this action 

 may be judged from the fact that at that time there was no 

 similar official position in any American agricultural experi- 

 ment station. The nearest analogy was Dr. H. W. Conn, 

 professor of biology at Wesley an University, Middleton, 

 Conn., who was doing some cooperative work with the Storrs 

 Agricultural Experiment Station and the Federal Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



To those coming recently into the field of dairy bacteriology 

 it is difficult to picture the meagreness of the facts available 

 to Dr. Russell when he was inducted into this field of work 

 in September, 1893. These available facts may be fairly 

 summarized as follows: 



1. Bacteria were known to be widely distributed in nature 

 and to find their way accidentally into milk. 



2. They multiplied in milk and in connection with their 

 growth produced various compounds among which acid was 

 the most evident. The work of Storch, Weigmann, and Conn 

 suggested that the flavors in cream and butter resulted in 

 part from such growths. The relation of bacteria to cheese 

 was less evident. 



3. It was known that tuberculosis was caused by a definite 

 germ and a number of other diseases of cows and people were 

 more or less definitely ascribed to germ causes. 



During the succeeding twenty-five years Dr. Russell, in 

 person and through his students, has contributed largely to 

 increasing our knowledge along all lines of dairy bacteriology. 

 One of the first problems which engaged his attention was 

 that of bovine tuberculosis 8 and the influence he exerted has 

 helped to bring Wisconsin to the front in the struggle against 



8 H. L. Russell, On the Efficiency of Tuberculin as a Diagnostic Agent 

 in Tuberculosis in Annual Report, Wis. Agr. Exp. Sta., 11 (1894), pp. 

 166-195, 1895. 



