MILK. 



203 



Fig. 113. 





Milk-globules and colostrum-corpuscles, the 

 latter being the largest. 



increase principally affects the sugar (to 70 parts in 1,000) in wo- 

 man's milk, and the caseine in that of the cow. It also contains 

 more fat than normal milk (even 50 parts in 1,000), this proceeding 

 probably from the colostrum- 

 corpuscles ; and twice or thrice 

 the amount of salts. 



Under the microscope, milk 

 shows an immense number of 

 fat-globules suspended in a clear 

 fluid, and which are called the 

 milk-globules. (Fig. 113.) For 

 a short time after parturition it 

 also contains the colostrum- cor- 

 puscles, some of which are also 

 shown in the accompanying 

 figure. 



1. The milk-globules are from 

 Won to sgVs (Hassal says ? ^ 

 to 40^0) f an mcn i n diameter, 



being fat-globules surrounded by a special membrane of caseine, as 

 already stated (p. 89). 



The colostrum-corpuscles (granular cells) are irregular conglome- 

 rations of fat-granules, held together by an amorphous albuminous 

 substance (homogeneous substance), being 5^^ to nearly g J^ of an 

 inch in diameter, having no nucleus nor cell- wall. They occur not 

 only in the colostrum (up to the third or fourth day after partu- 

 rition, and sometimes even up to the twentieth), but always also 

 when the milk-secretion is disturbed by any pathological condition. 

 Precisely similar bodies also occur in inflammatory exudations, and 

 are then called "glomeruli" and "inflammation -globules." (See 

 Figs. 42 and 59.) 



Epithelial cells often appear in milk ; cytoid (mucus) corpuscles 

 rarely and in pathological* states of the mammary glands. Fibrin- 

 ous clots and blood-corpuscles, of course, occur only when hemor- 

 rhage into the lactiferous ducts has taken place. Infusoria (vibrio 

 bacillus and byssus), as in the blue milk of cows, are very rarely 

 observed. 



2. The fluid portion of milk consists, on an average, of water 

 883.6 parts (Simon) to 1,000 of milk, holding in solution the fol- 

 lowing substances, and in the following proportions: 



