634 MILK. 



The influence of the food on the composition of the milk is of interest 

 from many points of view and has been the subject of many investigations. 

 From these we learn that in human beings as well as in animals an insuffi- 

 cient diet decreases the quantity of milk and the quantity of solids, while 

 abundant food increases both. From the observations of DECAISNE l 

 on nursing women during the siege of Paris in 1871, the amount of casein, 

 fat, sugar, and salts, but especially the fat, was found to decrease with 

 insufficient food, while the quantity of lactalbumin was found to be some- 

 what increased. Food rich in proteins increases the quantity of milk, 

 and also the solids contained, especially the fat, according to most 

 reports. The quantity of sugar in woman's milk is found by certain 

 investigators to be increased after food rich in proteins, while others 

 claim it is diminished. A diet rich in fat may, as the researches of SOXHLET 

 and many others 2 have shown, cause a marked increase in the fat of 

 the milk when the fat partaken is in a readily digestible and assimilable 

 form. The presence of large quantities of carbohydrates in the food seems 

 to cause no constant, direct action on the quantity of the milk constituents. 3 

 From feeding experiments with different foods we come to the conclusion 

 that the character of the food is of comparatively little influence, w r hile 

 the race and other conditions play an important role. Watery food 

 gives a milk containing an excess of water and having little value. In 

 the milk from cows which were fed on distillers' grain CoMMAiLLE 4 

 found 906.5 p. m. water, 26.4 p. m. casein, 4.3 p. m. albumin, 18.2 p. m. 

 fat, and 33.8 p. m. sugar. Such milk has sometimes a peculiar sharp 

 after-taste, although not always. 5 



Chemistry of Milk-secretion. That the constituents which occur actu- 

 ally dissolved in milk pass into the secretion and not alone by filtration 

 or diffusion, but more likely are secreted by a specific secretory activity 

 of the granular elements, is shown by the fact that milk-sugar, which 

 is not found in the blood, is to all appearances formed in the glands them- 

 selves. A further proof lies in the fact that the lactalbumin is not identical 

 with seralbumin; and lastly, as BUNGE 6 has shown, the mineral bodies 



1 Cited from Hoppe-Seyler, 1. c., 739. 



2 See Maly's Jahresber., 26. See also Basch, Ergebnisse der Physiologic, 2, Abt. 1. 



3 In regard to the literature on the action of various foods on woman's milk, see 

 Zalesky, "Ueber die Einwirkung der Nahrung auf die Zusammensetzung und Nahr- 

 haftigkeit der Frauenmilch," Berlin, klin. Wochenschr., 1888, which also contains the 

 literature on the importance of diet on the composition of other kinds of milk. In 

 regard to the extensive literature on the influence of various foods on the milk pro- 

 duction of animals, see Konig, Chem. d. menschl. Nahrungs und Genussmittel, 3. Aufl., 

 1, 298. See also Maly's Jahresber., 29, 37, and Morgen, Beger and Fingerling, Landw. 

 Versuchsst., 61, and Raudnitz, Monatschr. f. Kinderheilk. 



4 Cited from Konig, 2, 235. 



5 See Beck, Maly's Jahresber., 25. 



fl Lehrbuch d. physiol. und pathol. Chem., 3. Aufl., 93. 



