92 



anil gbsltractsj from dfamgn 

 [From Muller's Archives.'] 



On the Microscopic Constituents of Milk. Professor Nasse, of Mar- 

 burg, after a careful microscopic examination of milk from pregnant 

 and suckling women, as well as from a cow and a bitch, and a compa- 

 rison of his results with those of Donne and other preceding observers, 

 says, that the following may be enumerated as the microscopic consti- 

 tuents of the normal secretion of the mammary gland : 1. The smooth, 

 homogeneous, transparent oil-globules, to which, in addition to the 

 common milk-globules, belong also the fine, scarcely- measurable par- 

 ticles and the larger drops of oil which swim on the top of the milk ; 

 2. The cream-globules, which are distinguished from the oil-globules 

 by their opacity, and their facette-like aspect ; 3. The granulated yel- 

 low corpuscles; 4. The lamella of epithelium; 5. The more or less 

 turbid medium, in which the four preceding kinds of corpuscles are sus- 

 pended. 



The first, the common milk-globules, are composed entirely of fatty 

 matter, which dissolves completely and rapidly in ether. No membrane 

 can be seen investing them. In the first nine days after delivery, the 

 largest globules measure -^Q- of a line in diameter ; afterwards they are 

 as much as -^ Q , but many are found of a much smaller size, and through 

 all periods of lactation, the microscope, as well as other means of exa- 

 mination, show that the proportion of oil-globules in the milk varies 

 greatly in different persons and under different circumstances. 



In woman's milk perfectly fresh and warm, no other globules than these 

 are sometimes found ; but as soon as the milk has stood for some time 

 exposed to the air, other corpuscles are discernible in it, which are dis- 

 tinguished from the preceding by a greater definiteness, a less degree of 

 polish, and an appeance of facettes. In size they are nearly similar to 

 the oil-globules, but if the milk be examined some time after it is drawn, 

 a number are found much larger ; -^ of a line, or even more, in diame- 

 ter. They are not so easily soluble in ether as the common milk- 

 globules ; they do not break up in drying, but they become clearer ; 

 acetic acid and ammonia have no influence upon them ; they diminish 

 for a time when the milk is boiled, but they re-appear gradually as it 

 cools again ; when left at rest they collect on the surface and form the 

 cream ; they easily stick together, arid butter is formed when they are 

 collected in one homogeneous mass. It is evident that they acquire 

 their peculiar characters after they are drawn from the gland-ducts ; for 

 the author, as he watched them on the field of the microscope, could 

 see individual globules which were originally clear, becoming on a 

 sudden quite dark, and assuming the several characters of the cream- 

 globules. 



The yellow granulated corpuscles are almost peculiar to the colos- 

 trum ; after the first few days from delivery, they cease to occur in the 

 milk, and they disappear from it earlier in those who have borne chil- 



