174 OKGANISED FLUIDS. ^ 



if also this contain the colostrum corpuscles, then the milk is 

 either imperfectly elaborated or diseased. 



Whenever the proper globules of the milk occur abund- 

 antly, are of the usual size, and are equally diffused through- 

 out the serum, we may conclude that the other nutritive 

 elements of the milk are likewise present in due proportion. 

 (See Plate XIV. fig. I.) 



It must be held in mind, however, that the milk of dif- 

 ferent animals does not contain normally the same relative 

 amount of nutritive ingredients : thus the milk of woman is 

 especially rich in cream, while that of the goat and ass is but 

 poor in that element. 



POOR MILK. 



Not unfrequently the milk is found to contain a less quan- 

 tity of globules than ordinary : the milk in which a deficiency 

 of its globular element exists appears watery and trans- 

 parent, and is also usually of greater specific gravity than 

 good milk. (See Plate XIY. fig. 2.) 



This condition of the milk is one of its most common as 

 well as most serious states in its consequences to the child. 



At the same time that the milk is poor in globules or in 

 cream, the serum may be either deficient in quantity, or it 

 may be in excess. 



In either case, such milk, whether it be human or not, is 

 deficient of the amount of the nutritive ingredients necessary 

 for the growth and development of the child, which instead 

 of increasing in size, daily diminishes, becoming faded and 

 emaciated. In the instances in which milk containing a 

 superabundance of serum is received into the stomach, that 

 organ becomes distended and weakened by its engorgement 

 with a fluid the digestion of which brings with it little or no 

 nourishment. 



An infant whose strength is reduced by the poverty of the 

 milk given to it, is not unfrequently the subject of diarrhoea, 

 which still further lessens its powers. 



