MILK. 439 



Dr Bondt, proved as early as 1787, that butter could be obtain- 

 ed from woman's milk.* 



None of the methods by which cow's milk is coagulated suc- 

 ceed in producing the coagulation of woman's milk.f Meggen- 

 hoffer found that while cold, neither muriatic acid, acetic acid, 

 acetate of lead, perchloride of iron, sulphate of copper, nor 

 corrosive sublimate caused it to coagulate ; but coagula- 

 tion was produced if the milk was warm. Sometimes, though 

 but seldom, alcohol caused it to coagulate. The same remark 

 applies to nitrate of silver. In 20 trials, sulphate of iron caused 

 the coagulation of about one-half. Protochloride of tin, acetate 

 of lead, protonitrate of mercury, and tincture of nut-galls had a 

 similar action to nitrate of silver. All these specimens of wo- 

 man's milk reddened litmus-paper.:]: 



Woman's milk, according to Meggenhoffer, contains from 1 1 

 to 12 J per cent, of solid matter, and the quantity is greater a 

 considerable time after parturition than soon after it. By di- 

 gesting the solid matter of milk in alcohol Meggenhoffer obtain- 

 ed a butter which melted at 88 ; and the stearin deposited from 

 the alcohol as it cooled melted at 95. This butter agrees, there- 

 fore, with that from cow's milk. 



The characteristic property of woman's milk is, that the casein 

 forms soluble compounds with the acids, so -that we cannot throw 

 it down by their means. But this casein may be coagulated by 

 rennet. It does not concrete into a mass as in cow's milk, but 

 appears in isolated flocks. The mean quantity of casein in this 

 milk is between 2 and 3 per cent. The following table ex- 

 hibits the result of the analysis by Meggenhoffer, of three differ- 

 ent specimens of milk from different women : 



1. 2. 3. 



Alcoholic extract, with butter, lac-^\ 



tic acid, and lactates, common salt, V 9-13 8*81 17*12 



and a little sugar of milk, 

 Aqueous extracts, sugar of milk, and ) 



salts, ." . / 



Casein, coagulated by rennet, . 2-41 1-47 2-88 

 Water, 87-25 88-35 78-93 



99-93 99-92 99.81 



* Crell's Anrialen, 1794, 76. f Clarke, Irish Trans, ii, 175, 



\ Gmelin's Handbuch der Theor. Chimie, ii. 1402-. 



