Vehement attempts have been made in court and elsewhere to impeach the accuracy of the indications afforded by the lactometer. These have been mainly founded upon the fact that a sample of milk unusually rich in cream will have a lower density than a poorer grade, so that it is quite possible that milk of very superior quality may show a gravity identical with that of a watered specimen. Great stress has been laid upon this by the opponents of the measures to control milk adulteration adopted by the public sanitary authorities. They have contended that a chemical analysis should be made. Recourse to this method would, however, involve a greater amount of time than it is usually practicable to devote to the examination of the numerous samples daily inspected; moreover, the process is resorted to whenever the indications of the lactometer leave the inspector in doubt. With the exercise of ordinary intelligence this contingency seldom arises, as the proportion of cream required to reduce the specific gravity to that of a watered sample would be more than sufficient to obviate any danger of mistaking the cause of the decreased density. In this connection it should be stated, that the average lactometric standing of about 20,000 samples of milk, examined by the New York State Dairy Commissioner in the year 1884, was 110°, equivalent to a specific gravity of 1·0319. The following table shows the value of lactometer degrees in specific gravity:-- VALUE OF LACTOMETER DEGREES IN SPECIFIC GRAVITY.