OF LACTATION. 



1019 



and Mr. Birket, 1 is extremely simple. Each gland is composed of a number of 

 separate glandules, which are connected together by fibrous or fascial tissue, 

 in such a manner as to allow a certain degree of mobility of its parts, one upon 

 another, which may accommodate them to the actions of the pectoralis muscle 

 whereon they are bound down ; and the glandules are also connected by the 

 ramifications of the lactiferous tubes, which intermingle with one another in 

 such a manner as to destroy the simplicity and uniformity of their divisions, 

 although they rarely inosculate. The mammillary tubes, or terminal ducts con* 

 tained in the nipple, are usually about ten or twelve in number ; they are 

 straight, but of somewhat variable size ; and their orifices, which are situated 

 in the centre of the nipple, and are usually concealed by the overlapping of its 

 sides, are narrower than the tubes themselves. At the base of the nipple, these 



Fig. 281. 



Distribution of the Milk-ducts in the Mamma of the Human Female, during lactation; the ducts injected 



with wax. 



tubes dilate into reservoirs, which extend beneath the areola and to some dis- 

 tance into the gland, when the breast is in a state of lactation. These are much 

 larger in many of the lower Mammalia than they are in the Human female ; 

 their use is to supply the immediate wants of the child when it is first applied 

 to the breast, so that it shall not be disappointed, but shall be induced to pro- 

 ceed with sucking until the " draught" be occasioned ( 948). From each of 

 these reservoirs commence five or six branches of the lactiferous tubes, each of 

 which speedily subdivides into smaller ones ; and these again divaricate, until 



1 " The Diseases of the Breast, and their Treatment," 1850. 



