ITS MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCES. 333 



none appear so perfectly to fulfil their object as the one recently 

 proposed by M. Lamperierre.* 



This apparatus is made of caoutchouc, in the form of a mouth, 

 provided with lips, gums, and elastic cheeks, the latter being con- 

 nected with the short neck of a small tubular retort, into which is 

 introduced a glass tube, which, when necessary, receives the milk, 

 either by the action of the woman herself, or by the aid of a 

 small air-pump. 



Fresh milk appears, on microscopic examination, as a clear 

 fluid, in which fat-globules, the so-called milk- globules, are sus- 

 pended, as in an emulsion. 



These milk-globules differ considerably in size. The majority 

 have a diameter of from 0'0012'" to 0-0018'"; and although they 

 are rarely found to measure 0-0038'" in fresh milk, Henle states 

 that he has found them to be 0-014'"; and, according to Raspail 

 and Donne, they are even sometimes 0-044'". 



When examined under the microscope, without the addition 

 of any chemical reagent, these globules exhibit no trace of any 

 investing membrane, although its existence may very readily be 

 demonstrated beyond all doubt, in two different ways. One 

 method, which was suggested by Henle,f consists in observing, 

 under the microscope, the action of diluted acetic acid on the 

 milk. The milk-globules exhibit changes of form under these 

 circumstances which they could not possibly experience if they 

 were mere fat-globules, for they become much distorted, some 

 appearing caudate, and others biscuit-formed. From the greater 

 number there escapes a small drop, which appears almost like the 

 nucleus of a larger globule, and is soon displaced by another small 

 fat-globule, which emerges from the milk-globule, and either com- 

 bines with the larger globules, or is only made to project in such 

 a manner, that the milk-globule exhibits a faint resemblance to a 

 fermentation-fungus in the process of development. When treated 

 with a less diluted acetic acid, the milk-globules become confluent. 

 Mitscherlich'sf method, which we described in detail in vol. i., 

 p. 384, proves, in even a more distinct manner, the presence of a 

 membrane round the milk-globules. 



Occasionally also the milk exhibits certain morphological 

 elements, which, from their invariable presence in colostrum (the 

 first milk yielded after delivery), have been termed colostrum- 



* Compt. rend. T. 30, p. 219. 



t Allg. Anat. S.942. 



% Goschen's Jahresber. Bd. 2, S. 19. I 



