Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-02-11
REVOLUTIONIZE
CHEESE MAKING
DRs. BABcocK AND RUSSELL
MAKE GREAT DISCOVERY.
SAMPLES PROVE THEORY
Expert Dairymen of international Rep.
utation Support the Proposition
Bacteria not the Active Principle in
Cheese Ripening but Galactase Plan
Will Cheaper Product.
Madison, Feb. 6.

Madison, Feb. 6.
Professors S. M. Babcock and Fl. L.
Russell have discovered process of
ripening cheese which involves new
principle and promises to revolution
ize the manufacture of this wholesome
dairy product. The scientists hold
that galactase, which is present in
small quantities in all norma rlilk,
acts upon the caseine of cheese and
renders the curd digestible, and that
this is the active principle of cheese
ripening instead of bacteria, as form
erly supposed. Their theories are
borne out by a number of experiments
and samples of cheese produced under
conditions in which bacteria could not
live. If the theories are correct and
prove so to be, the curing room will
no longer be needed in the average
cheese factory and the manufacture of
this product will be both cheapened
and improved.
In 1897, as the result of years of
study, these Investigators surprised
the dairy world by announcing that
milk contains an inherent ferment
which slowly tends to digest it. This
ferment they named "galactase." The
announcement awakened the dairy
world and other Investigators followed
up the subject, notably DR.. Freuden-
reich of Berne, Switzerland, whose re-
searches confirmed the work of the
Madison investigators, and the fact IS
now generally accepted by dairy
scientists. DR.. Babcock tells us that
this digesting fluid galactase is pres
ent in small quantity in normal milk
and has the character Of the secre-
lions of the pancreatic organ of the
body.
When the discovery Of galactase
was announced many dairymen re
garded it simply as a scientific fact
without practical bearing, and the
question was asked, After all, of what
value can such discoveries be to
dairymen? Continued study by these
scientists led to the important con
clusion that it was galactase which
acting upon the caseine of cheese
renders the indigestible curd digesti-
DIS, SLOWLY COHNSIC II I1CO oil OO1OAO
product. Previous to this time it had
been held by dairy scientists general
ly that the ripening Of cheese was due
to bacteria. If our Madison scientists
are correct, the old theory must give
way to the entirely new and strange
one, based upon the discovery of
galactase.
In their further studies of the sub
ject Dr. Babcock and Russell made
the important discovery that galac-
tase ferment was not killed or it's &C
ton destroyed by temperatures as
low as the freezing point and even
lower. At the freezing temperature,
and somewhat higher, the work of
bacteria in the cheese is arrested, and
if cheese is held for some time in low
temperatures the bacteria die through
the action of the cold and time. Our
scientists then concluded that if
these facts were all correct, it would
be possible to cure cheese at very low
temperatures and secure more salts
factory results than if higher tempera-
lures were used. The low tempera-
lures would allow the galactase to
continue it's work of digesting the