334 MILK. 



corpuscles (the corps granuleux of French physiologists.) They 

 are irregular conglomerations of very small fat-globules, which 

 are held together by means of an amorphous, somewhat granu- 

 lar substance. Their diameter varies, according to Henle, from 

 0'0063"' to 0'0232'", but may be considered on an average to 

 be about 0*0111'". The fat-granules of these masses are more 

 easily dissolved by ether than those of the milk-globules ; acetic 

 acid and potash dissolve the granular combining substance, and 

 scatter the fat-globules : an aqueous solution of iodine imparts an 

 intense yellow colour to the colostrum-corpuscles. There can, 

 therefore, be no doubt that these molecules are merely very 

 small fat-globules imbedded in an albuminous substance. 

 There is no appearance either of a nucleus or of an investing 

 membrane. 



These molecules generally disappear on the third or fourth day 

 after delivery, although they have been found as late as the 

 twentieth day in perfectly healthy women. As a general rule, 

 however, these corpuscles return whenever any disease supervenes 

 after delivery, or in case the mother is attacked by any acute 

 affection. 



In all cases in which 1 examined the milk of women shortly 

 after their confinement or of nurses who were suffering from any 

 acute disease, such as inflammations, acute exanthemata, typhus, 

 &c., I always found colostrum -corpuscles, and, in addition to these, 

 true granular cells, having a microscopically and chemically 

 demonstrable investing membrane, and frequently also an obvious 

 nucleus; the granules of these "inflammatory globules" were 

 tolerably large, transparent, and rich in fat, resembling those 

 which are so commonly observed in the greyish black sputa of 

 chronic catarrh (in the emphysema of old persons). 



Epithelial cells and mucus-corpuscles are only incidental admix- 

 tures of the milk, and are, therefore, more frequently observed in 

 morbid affections than in the normal condition. 



Fibrinous coagula only occur when the milk contains blood. 



Blood-corpuscles have rarely been found in the milk, and are 

 only present in it in abrasions of the nipples, or in similar 

 affections. 



Infusoria, or some of the lower forms of vegetation, are occa- 

 sionally found in cows 5 milk, especially in the so-called blue milk. 

 J. Fuchs* refers this colouring of the milk to the presence of an 



* Handworterb. d. Physiol. Bd. 2, S. 470. 



