86 Anatomy and Physiolorjy of the Mammary Gland. 



Without describing in a more exact manner, in this part of our 

 essay, the arrangement of the several parts of the mamma, we 

 may state that in the carnivorous and likewise in the omnivorous 

 classes no reservoirs properly so called exist, provision being 

 made for the retention of the milk by numerous but small dila- 

 tions of the coats of the lactiferous tubes themselves, and by the 

 several windings which they form in their course — anatomical 

 peculiarities which are depicted in Fig. 2. 



It is perhaps right that we should here offer an explanation ot 

 our having refrained in general from using the common term 

 udder, even in alluding to the cow. The adoption of this name 

 would, we consider, be likely to lead to wrong inferences. Many 

 persons might suppose it lo be synonymous with the term 

 mamma, and hence infer that only one of those glands existed 

 in the cow, being divided into four segments. We have already 

 spoken of the four ylands of this animal, and it nov/ becomes 

 necessary to state that these are as separate and distinct from each 

 other as if they had been placed at a ccmsiderable distance apart. 

 Clustered together, as we find them, they constitute " the udder." 



This peril ct and complete isolation of tlie mammae is a v/isc 

 provision of nature, for should one, two, or even three become 

 affected with disease and lose their power of secreting milk, 

 the remaining gland or glands would still furnish a sufficiency 

 of this fluid to maintain at least the vitality of tlie offspring. 

 The separation of the one gland from the other is effected by 

 a reflection of fibrous tissue coming off froju the walls of the 

 abdomen, and dipping as a septum between them. The same 

 tissue, also, is continued as a covering to eacli gland, and thus 

 binds the whole of them together. This arrangement places the 

 entire udder in a kind of sling, and maintains its close connexion 

 with the abdominal parietes. In many aged cows the external 

 reflection of fibrous tissue, from having been long kept on the 

 stretch, loses some of its suspending power, .and hence in such 

 animals the udder is often very loose and pendulous, occasionally 

 hanging in consequence to within a few inches of the ground — 

 a state of things which is irremediable. 



Our admiration of nature's provisions for furnishing a por- 

 tion of good milk in certain diseased states of the mamma 

 is, however, greatly increased when we investigate the arrange- 

 ment of the component parts in such domesticated animals as 

 the elephant, the bitch, (jr the pig. Here it will be found that 

 several sets of lactiferous ducts go to make up the substance ol" 

 the gland, and that every one of these is as distinct from the other 

 as it is possible to conceive. For a knowledge of this fact we are 

 chiefly indebted to the researches of the late Sir Astley Cooper, 

 who, in his admirable work on the ' Anatomy of the I3renst,' gives 



