522 THE HUMAN BODY 



The production of abortion, even in the first stages of preg- 

 nancy, by the taking of drugs, the so-called abortifacients, a prac- 

 tice which seems to have gained considerable headway through 

 the widespread advertisement of their wares by unscrupulous 

 vendors of "patent medicines," is so dangerous to the health, 

 and even the life, of the woman who practices it that no consid- 

 eration sanctions it. 



Lactation. The mammary glands for several years after birth 

 remain small, and alike in both sexes. Towards puberty they be- 

 gin to enlarge in the female, and when fully developed form in 

 that sex two rounded eminences, the breasts, placed on the thorax. 

 A little below the center of each projects a small eminence, the 

 nipple, and the skin around this forms a colored circle, the areola. 

 In virgins the areolse are pink; they darken in tint and enlarge 

 during the first pregnancy and never quite regain their original 

 hue. The mammary glands are constructed on the compound 

 racemose type. Each consists of from fifteen to twenty distinct 

 lobes, made up of smaller divisions; from each main lobe a sep- 

 arate galactophorous duct, made by the union of smaller branches 

 from the lobules, runs towards the nipple, all converging beneath 

 the areola. There each dilates and forms a small elongated reser- 

 voir in which the milk may temporarily collect. Beyond this the 

 ducts narrow again, and each continues to a separate opening on 

 the nipple. Embedding and enveloping the lobes of the gland is a 

 quantity of firm adipose tissue which gives the whole breast its 

 rounded form. 



During maidenhood the glandular tissue remains imperfectly 

 developed and dormant. Early in pregnancy it begins to increase 

 in bulk, and the gland-lobes can be felt as hard masses through 

 the superjacent skin and fat. Even at parturition, however, their 

 functional activity is not fully established. The oil-globules of 

 the milk are formed by a sort of fatty degeneration of the gland- 

 cells, which finally fall to pieces; the cream is thus set free in the 

 watery and albuminous secretion formed simultaneously, while 

 newly developed gland-cells take the place of those destroyed. 

 In the milk first secreted after accouchment (the colostrum) the 

 cell destruction is incomplete, and many cells still float in the 

 liquid, which has a yellowish color; this first milk acts as a pur- 

 gative on the infant, and probably thus serves a useful purpose, 



