TESTIMONY OF HENRY MORTON. 101 



By COUNSEL FOR PEOPLE Q. Is there any other instrument, so 

 far as you are informed, which is used for ascertaining the spe- 

 cific gravity of fluid by insertion in the fluid, other than the 

 hydrometer, that kind of a hydrometer called a lactometer do 

 you understand me ? A. Not, perhaps, properly speaking, an in- 

 strument, but by weighing a heavy substance for example, plati- 

 num in distilled water, and then weighing the same lump in 

 another fluid, we can compare the densities of the two fluids. 



Q. It becomes my duty to ascertain, under some police regula- 

 tions, the quality of milk which may be kept for sale in New York : 

 Is there any instrument, except the hydrometer called the lactome- 

 ter, by which the specific gravity of milk thus found can be prac- 

 tically determined at the place where you find it, by any other 

 instrument than the lactometer ? A. None to my knowledge. 



Q. You regard the lactometer as the best practical test of water- 

 ing? A. Undoubtedly. 



Cross-examined : 



Q. Professor Morton, I understand you to testify that you regard 

 it as important that the lactometer should be accurately construct- 

 ed and accurately used. Am I correct ? A. The term accurate 

 of course admits of a very wide range of interpretation. When I 

 use the term accurate, I mean sufficiently accurate for the purpose 

 involved. 



Q. As you are going into metaphysics, will you stai,o the differ- 

 ence between accurate and sufficiently accurate for the purpose in- 

 volved? A. Certainly. When I buy a pound of sugar, I expect 

 the scales of the grocer to be so far accurate that he shall not cheat 

 me. If I wish to determine the specific gravity of a new element, 

 I should only be satisfied when my balance was so accurate that I 

 knew 110 way of making it more so. 



Q. If you made a test of a substance or fluid by a scientific in- 

 strument, and upon that test you propose to base a criminal prose- 

 cution which might have the effect of ruining the person prose- 

 cuted or subjecting him to fine or imprisonment, would you not use 

 the most accurate test that you could possibly get hold of? A. Not 

 if the question involved was entirely independent of the extreme 

 accuracy of the test. 



