2S8 NON-NITROGENOUS NEUTRAL BODIES. 



assumed by Poggiale* is obviously too high ; in that of the ass it 

 constitutes 4*5^; in that of the mare, 8*7^ m tnat f tne g oat > 4.4& 

 and in that of the sheep, 4*2^; indeed, it was even found in the milk 

 of a he-goat. (Schlossberger.t) DumasJ thought that he had ascer- 

 tained that the milk of bitches restricted entirely to an animal diet 

 contained no milk-sugar, but it was subsequently ascertained by 

 Bensch that even then traces of milk-sugar were present ; its 

 quantity is however perceptibly increased under the use of a vege- 

 table diet. 



In the colostrum Simon found 7^? and in the milk six days 

 after delivery only 6*24 of milk-sugar ; his investigations show 

 that it diminishes according to the length of time after delivery at 

 which it is secreted, and that neither an abundant nor an insuffi- 

 cient diet influences its quantity, although differences in the food con- 

 siderably affect the amount of butter. The observations of Donne, || 

 Meggenhofen,^[ and Simon** concur in showing that diseases, 

 especially syphilis, do not modify the amount of sugar in the milk. 



Milk-sugar has been sought for in the blood by Mitscherlich, 

 and Tiedemann and Gmelin, but hitherto without success. 



[Braconnotft believes that he has demonstrated that milk-sugar 

 exists in the cotyledons of the seeds of vegetables. G. E. D.] 



Origin. The positive experiments of Dumas arid Bensch 

 which prove that the amount of milk-sugar increases during a 

 vegetable diet, give great probability to the opinion that this sub- 

 stance is principally formed from glucose or from the starch of 

 the food ; but notwithstanding the apparently affirmative observa- 

 tions of Bensch, the question whether it may not also be formed 

 from nitrogenous matters, must for the present remain undecided. 

 Where and by what means this conversion of glucose within the 

 organism occurs, are subjects of which we are entirely ignorant. 



Uses. No doubt can be entertained that the milk-sugar which 

 the infant at the breast receives in its food serves the same purposes 

 in the economy that starch and other carbo-hydrates serve in the 

 more matured organism. 



* Compt. rend. T. 28, pp. 505-7. 



t Ann. d Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 51, S. 431. 



J Compt. rend. T. 21, pp. 708-717. 



Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 61, S. 221-227. 



II Du lait et en particulier de celui des noun-ices. Paris, 1830. 



*|J Diss. inaug. sist. iiidagationem lactis muliebris. Fraiicof. a. M., 1816. 



** Die Fraiicnmilch. Berlin, 1838. 



ft Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. 4 Ser. T. 27, p. 399. 



