166 ORGANISED FLUIDS. 



never encountered a single instance of such pathological 

 alteration in the human subject. The case in which this oc- 

 curred was that of a young woman confined of her first child ; 

 the milk not appearing at the usual time the friends became 

 anxious, and one of them, more officious and more ignorant 

 than the rest, had the nipples drawn with such vigour and 

 effect as to cause the extraction of a liquid half blood and 

 half milk. (Plate XV. fig. 2.) The occurrence of blood 

 corpuscles in the milk can only take place as the consequence 

 of a rupture of some of the smaller blood vessels which are 

 distributed through the mammary gland. 



The above facts clearly show the impropriety of applying 

 an infant to the breast in cases of inflammation and suppu- 

 ration in that organ. 



Not the least difficulty need be experienced in the detec- 

 tion of pus and blood corpuscles in the milk, their form and 

 structure being so totally dissimilar to those of the proper 

 milk globules. Re-agents also affect the different kinds of 

 corpuscles differently. Thus the milk globules are soluble 

 in ether, which does not materially affect the pus and blood 

 corpuscles, the latter of which is dissolved by acetic acid, and 

 the former only by the caustic alkalies. 



The Milk of Syphilitic Women. 



M. Donne has made repeated attempts to discover in the 

 milk of women labouring under syphilis in different forms, 

 some element which would account for the transmission of 

 the affection from the mother to the infant. These endea- 

 vours were, however, entirely fruitless ; nor is this result other 

 than what might have been anticipated, for it is scarcely to 

 be supposed that the venereal virus exists anywhere in a 

 tangible form, and if it really does so, it would still be a 

 matter of impossibility to point out the channels by which 

 any solid matter could make its way through the system and 

 mingle with the secretion of the mammary gland. 



