MODIFICATIONS OF MILK. 55 



rectly determined. I analysed the milk of a very poor woman 

 fifteen times at regular intervals during the course of half a 

 year, commencing with the second day after delivery. It so 

 happened that she was suddenly deprived of the means of ob- 

 taining even the most ordinary necessaries of life. The milk 

 secreted at this period, (the llth of November,) was sufficiently 

 abundant in quantity, but was very poor in solid constituents, 

 containing only 8-6g. Some days afterwards (the 18th of 

 November) she was placed upon a full and nutritious meat diet. 

 The milk, in consequence, was secreted so copiously as to run 

 spontaneously from the breasts: it left 11 -9g of solid consti- 

 tuents. Her circumstances again became very bad, and she 

 was frequently in a state of the utmost destitution : on the 

 1st of December, while in this condition, the milk again be- 

 came very thin, and left only 9'8g of solid constituents. I con- 

 cluded my researches on the milk of this woman, by an exa- 

 mination on the 4th of January, after she had been supplied 

 for two days with a nutritious meat diet : the milk was then 

 very rich in solid constituents, and left a residue of 12'6. 



The following are the results of my examinations on these 

 four occasions; below them is the average of the fourteen 

 analyses to which I have already referred : 



1. Milk on Nov. llth 



2. Ditto Nov. 18th 



3. Ditto Dec. 1st 



4. Ditto Jan. 4th . 873-6 126-4 37-0 40-0 46-0 



5. Average of 14 analyses 883-6 116-4 25-3 38-3 48-2 



It is evident from these analyses, that however much the 

 nutriment of the mother may vary, no great influence is thereby 

 exerted on the relative quantities of casein and sugar. The 

 changes consist in a greater or less degree of saturation, in the 

 rich yellowish white or the blueish colour, in the quantity of 

 the milk, and in its amount of solid constituents ; with the ex- 

 ception of the variation in quantity, all the other changes are 

 dependent on an increase or diminution of the butter; the 

 former occurs under the use of a copious and nutritious diet, 

 the latter when the food is poor and scanty. Donne's 1 proposal 



1 Du Lait, etc. p. 54. 



