70 THE JERSEY, ALDERNEY AND GUERNSEY COW. 



enable it to yield milk to the full extent of its milking 

 qualities. 



The udder of the cow is constituted by four or six 

 mammse, two or three on each side. Rarely do we find 

 more than four secreting, and they are therefore called 

 the quarters of the udder. The whole of the quarters 

 are in the cow enveloped by a common fibrous tunic, 

 tough and elastic, connected with the abdominal fascia 

 by similar fibro-elastic textures. This outer envelope 

 is closely adherent to the skin, and on its glandular 

 aspect is connected with numerous prolongations or 

 septa intersecting the gland and supporting its different 

 lobes and lobules. The tube passing through the teat 

 or nipple may be regarded as the stem connected with 

 a considerable cavity, and from which spread many 

 branches ; these traverse the substance of the organ in 

 every direction, and are connected with clusters of gland 

 vesicles. Like all compound racemose glands, they 

 may be compared to bunches of grapes, the acini or 

 grapes being connected by areolar or connective tissue, 

 which constitutes the framework or skeleton of the 

 organ, and is transformed into or continuous with the 

 outer fibro-elastic envelope. 



The teat itself, composed of the outer skin, of a fibro- 

 vascular and partly erectile tissue, possessed also of 

 considerable muscular contractility, is traversed through 

 its centre by the milk duct, communicating, as I have 

 before said, with a milk reservoir, and through it with 

 every other tube in the gland. The tubes which con- 



