74 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



DOCTOR OF DAIRYING 



23. Stephen Moulton Babcock was born at Bridgewater. 

 New York, in 1842. His education was of a type to prepare him 

 for permanent research in scientific subjects. In 1866 he 

 received his A. B. from Tufts College. From 1872 to 1875 he 

 attended Cornell University, following which he became an 

 instructor in chemistry at this institution. In 1877 he was 

 granted a leave of absence to study chemistry abroad and in 

 1879 the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred on him 

 by the University of Goettingen. He returned to Cornell but in 

 1882 became chemist at the New York Experiment Station at 

 Geneva, there initiating the series of scientific discoveries which 

 have done so much toward the upbuilding of the dairy industry. 

 Here he invented an apparatus for determining the viscosity of 

 liquids, and in 1883 worked out a gravimetric method of ana- 

 lyzing milk which is still in use. In 1885 he perfected a simple 

 method for determining the size and number of fat globules 

 in milk, and as a result of his achievements, in 1888 received 

 a call to the chemistry department of the Experiment Station at 

 the University of Wisconsin. Immediately upon his arrival in 

 Madison he began to work on a method for the determination 

 of the percentage of butter fat in milk, and in July, 1890, in 

 collaboration with Dean Henry (20) he published the first 

 bulletin announcing the discovery of the centrifugal test for 

 butter fat. So unusual were the demands for this bulletin, that 

 60,000 copies were distributed through the Wisconsin Experi- 

 ment Station alone. The news of the discovery travelled to all 

 parts of the world, and since Dr. Babcock refused to patent it 

 for his own personal gain, its benefits have spread everywhere. 



While the Babcock Test was undoubtedly his greatest contri- 

 bution to the dairy industry, his research work on dairy products 

 was by no means terminated. In 1895 he established a method 

 by which casein can he mechanically separated from the other 



