Gouttes de Lait and The Milbank Quarterly

One of the more fascinating public health organizations of the early 20th century was the goutte de lait [from the French for “a drop of milk”]. Better known to Americans as “milk stations” or “milk depots,” they began in France in the early 1890s before traveling to Great Britain and the United States.1,2 In a way, both the Milbank Memorial Fund and The Milbank Quarterly also began with a drop of milk, albeit of the condensed variety.