74 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 
DOCTOR OF DAIRYING 
23. STEPHEN MouLton Bascock 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. Bascock refused to patent it 
for his own personal gain, its benefits have spread everywhere. 
While the Bascock 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 be mechanically separated from the other 
