INFLUENCE OF THE FOOD. 667 



We cannot therefore state as a definite fact that the composition of 

 the ash of the sucking young and the ash of the corresponding milk coin- 

 cide. BUNGE 1 nevertheless claims that the composition of the ash of 

 the sucking young of various mammals is nearly the same, but that the 

 ash of the milk differs from the ash of the young in so far as the slower 

 the young grows the richer it is in alkali chlorides and relatively poorer 

 in phosphates and lime-salts. The constituents of the ash have two 

 functions to perform, namely, the building up of the tissues and secondly 

 the preparation of the excreta, especially the urine. The faster the 

 young grows the more is the first in evidence, while the slower it develops, 

 the more prominent is the second. 



The quantity of mineral bodies in the milk, and especially the amount 

 of lime and phosphoric acid, as shown by BUNGE and PROSCHER and 

 PAGES, stands in close relation to the rapidity of growth, because the 

 amount of these mineral constituents in the milk is greater in animals 

 which grow and develop quickly than in those which grow only slowly. 

 A similar relation also exists, as shown by the researches of PROSCHER, 

 and especially of AfiDERHALDEN, 2 between the quantity of protein in 

 the milk and the rapidity of development of the sucking young. The 

 amount of protein is greater in the milk the quicker the animal develops. 



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 3 

 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 4 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 



1 Bunge, " Die zimehmende Unfahigkeit der Frauen ihre Kinder zu stillen," Miin- 

 chen, 1900, cited by Camerer, Zeitschr. f. Biologic, 40. 



2 Proscher, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 24; Abderhalden, ibid., 27; Pages, Arch, 

 de Physiol. (5), 7. 



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



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



