OP LACTATION. 1021 



others) of the commencement of gestation. The Areola at this time becomes 

 darker in its color, and thicker in substance, and also more extended ; its pa- 

 pillae become more developed, and the secretion from its follicles increases. A 

 true lacteal secretion usually commences about the third or fourth month of 

 pregnancy, and may be obtained by pressure properly applied. This fact may 

 be usefully applied in diagnosing cases of concealed or doubtful pregnancy from 

 cases of simple suppression of the catamenia; but it will not serve to distinguish 

 true pregnancy from spurious, or from the distension of the uterus by tumors. 1 

 The vascularity of the gland continues to increase during pregnancy; and at the 

 time of parturition, its lobulated character can be distinctly felt. The follicles are 

 not, however, developed sufficiently for injection, until lactation has commenced. 

 After the cessation of the catamenia from age, so that pregnancy is no longer 

 possible, the lactiferous ducts continue open, but the milk-follicles are incapable 

 of receiving injection. The substance of the glandules gradually disappears, 

 so that in old age only portions of the ducts remain, which are usually loaded 

 with mucus j but the place of the glandules is commonly filled up by adipose 

 tissue, so that the form of the breast is preserved. Sir A. Cooper notices a 

 curious change, which he states to be almost invariable with age ; namely, the 

 ossification of the arteries of the breast, the large trunks as well as the branches, 

 so that their calibre is greatly diminished or even obliterated. The Mammary 

 gland of the Male is a sort of miniature picture of that of the Female. It 

 varies extremely in its magnitude, being in some persons of the size of a large 

 pea ; whilst in others it is an inch, or even two inches, in diameter. In its 

 structure it corresponds exactly with that of the female, but is altogether on a 

 smaller scale. It is composed of lobules containing follicles from which ducts 

 arise ; and these follicles and ducts are not too minute to be injected, although 

 with difficulty. The evolution of the gland goes on pari passu with that of 

 the body, not undergoing an increase at any particular period ; it is sometimes 

 of considerable size in old age. A fluid, which is probably mucus, may be 

 pressed from the nipple in many persons ; and this in the dead body with 

 even more facility than in the living. That the essential character of the gland is 

 the same in the male as in the female, is shown by the instances, of which there 

 are now several on record, in which infants have been suckled by men ( 1022). 

 1022. Although the state of functional activity in the Mammary gland is 

 usually limited to the epoch succeeding Parturition, yet this is not invariably 

 the case ; for numerous instances are on record, in which young women who 

 have never borne children, and even old women long past the period of 

 child-bearing, have had such a copious flow of milk as to be able to act as effi- 

 cient nurses. 3 In these cases, the strong desire to furnish milk, and continued 

 irritation of the nipple by the infant's mouth seem to have furnished the stimu- 

 lus requisite for the formation of the secretion ; and it has been found that 

 this is usually adequate to restore the secretion, after it has been intermitted for 

 some months during the ordinary period of lactation, in consequence of disorder 

 or debility on the part of the mother, or any other cause ; so that where her con- 

 dition renders it advisable that she should discontinue nursing for a time, the 

 child may be withdrawn and the milk " dried-up" with a confident expectation 

 that the secretion may be reproduced subsequently. 3 Dr. M' William mentions, 

 in his Report of the Niger Expedition, 4 that the inhabitants of Bona Yista (Cape 



1 See the valuable paper by Dr. Peddie, " On the Mammary Secretion," in the " Edinb. 

 Monthly Journ.," Aug. 1848. 



2 A collection of such cases is given in Dr. Dunglison's "Human Physiology," 7th edit, 

 vol. ii. p. 513. 



3 See an account of M. Trousseau's experience on this point, in "L'Union Medicale," 

 1852, No. 7 ; and a paper by Dr. Ballou in the " Amer. Journ. of Med. Sci.," Jan. 1852. 



" Medical Gazette," Jan. 1847. 



