MILK. 169 



THE MILK OF WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN DELIVERED, BUT 

 WHO HAVE NOT NURSED THEIR OFFSPRING. 



The mammary gland of women who have borne children, 

 but who have not nursed them, is frequently found to con- 

 tain milk many months after confinement. 



This milk always presents the characters of colostrum. 



MILK IN THE BREASTS OF CHILDREN. 



A milk-like fluid can frequently be expressed from the 

 breasts of infants and young children, both male and female. 



This fluid, examined microscopically, has been found to 

 exhibit all the characters of ordinary milk; and, in some 

 cases, the colostrum corpuscles have even been detected in it. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF MILK. 



The milk of one mammiferous animal resembles so closely 

 that of another that it is often a matter of impossibility to 

 distinguish, either with the naked eye or by means of the 

 microscope, the different kinds of milk. 



The milk of the ass may, however, be generally known by 

 its watery aspect, its bluish tint, and its lightness; that of 

 woman by the promptitude with which the layer of cream is 

 formed upon it ; but it is, above all, by the taste that the 

 several kinds of milk are characterised : thus, the taste of the 

 milk of the cow can scarcely be confounded with that of the 

 ass or goat, nor can the flavour of the milk of woman be 

 mistaken for that of any of these. 



The microscope aids but little in the discrimination of the 

 different kinds of milk : the globules of the milk of the goat 

 are certainly smaller than those of the other species named, 

 and those of the ass are less numerous ; nevertheless these 

 characters are so little constant that they are not, in many 

 instances, sufficient to distinguish them from the milk of the 

 cow or of woman. 



