In 1900, 13% of infants in the United States died before their first birthday, most of dehydration from diarrhea. As part of a nationwide effort to “save the babies,” pediatricians focused on several endeavors—experimenting with commercially made infant-food products; working with dairy farmers to clean up cows’ milk; lobbying to pass municipal and state legislation regulating the dairy industry; and devising mathematical “formulas” that represented instructions to chemists on how to “humanize” cows’ milk for the needs of a particular infant. Pediatricians dubbed the latter endeavor “percentage feeding” and, from the 1890s to the 1920s, they deemed percentage feeding a lifesaving scientific achievement. The complex, virtually infinite array of mathematical formulas that comprised this infant-feeding system is the origin of the word “formula” as used today to describe artificial baby milk.

中文翻译：

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“公式”的起源：科学现状，1890 年代

1900 年，美国有 13% 的婴儿在一岁前死亡，其中大部分是因腹泻脱水。作为全国“拯救婴儿”努力的一部分，儿科医生专注于多项努力——试验商业制造的婴儿食品；与奶农合作清理牛奶；游说通过监管乳制品行业的市级和州级立法；并设计数学“公式”，代表化学家如何“人性化”牛奶以满足特定婴儿的需求。儿科医生将后者称为“百分比喂养”，从 1890 年代到 1920 年代，他们认为百分比喂养是一项挽救生命的科学成就。复杂的，