TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 131 



On Saccharine Fermentation within the Female Breast. 

 By George D. Gibb, M.D., M.A., F.G.S. 



After referring to Voxel's discovery of vibriones in human milk, and the suspicion 

 he entertained that their origin was due to fermentation of the milk, but which was 

 denied by subsequent observers, the author proceeded to state that his own researches 

 into this question commenced in the latter part of 1854 At that time an infant seven 

 weeks old was brought to him in the most extreme state of emaciation, whose 

 mother had the appearance of good health. The child, although but skin and bone, 

 was healthy and plump at birth, and was in no way diseased ; it had plenty of its 

 mother's milk, but never was satisfied, and seemed ravenous. The most profuse 

 diaphoresis and diuresis had worn it to a shadow. The mother's milk was found 

 to be rich in cream, neutral, sp. gr. 1032, and contained a large quantity of sugar. 

 Examined under the microscope upon the instant of withdrawal from the breast, it 

 revealed numbers of living animalcules, those known as the Vibrio baculus, but 

 which he proposed to change to Vibrio lactis as more appropriate. These he con- 

 sidered the result of fermentation of the saccharine element within the gland. 

 There was an absence of mammary congestion and heat, which are usually present 

 in such cases, but much general nervous excitement, which it was necessary to 

 control by proper treatment. The child was supplied with an abundance of- good 

 cow's milk, and gradually weaned, after the lapse of some weeks, and ultimately 

 completely recovered. The mother's condition also improved ; the milk continued 

 to be rich in cream and sugar for some time, varying in sp. gr. from 1032 to 1035, 

 and always neutral ; the animalcules remained for some weeks, and finally disap- 

 peared; and when drawn from the breast, the milk invariably turned sour much 

 sooner than other examples of cows or healthy human milk. 



From 1854 to the present time the author has examined many hundred specimens 

 of human milk, chemically and microscopically, and has occasional! v found twospecies 

 of animalcules to be present in the glands of those whose general health was dis- 

 ordered from various causes during lactation, or where the process of lactation was 

 unusually prolonged, or again, where the quantity of milk secreted was small and 

 insufficient to satisfy the wants of the infant. At early lactation also, where the 

 milk was good and plentiful, but with constitutional symptoms present as already 

 referred to, both species were found, but not in the same individual. 



These creatures consisted, first, of the Vibrio lactis, resembling little rod or 

 minute hair-shaped bodies, similar to those found in some of the other fluids of the 

 body ; and secondly, of monads, which ho has found to be far more frequent and com- 

 mon than vibnones, and which he proposed to call lianas lactis. 



Both species were noticed at all periods of lactation, from a few days to upwards 

 of twelve months; the colour and specific gravity of the milk varied, but it was inva- 

 riably alkaline or neutral. The children were mostly skin and bone, resembling 

 little old men, and soon died of inanition unless other" food than the mother's milk 

 was supplied to them. It was not these little bodies that disagreed, but the healthy 

 properties of the milk for assimilation were destroyed, by constitutional causes in 

 the mother, which imparted as it were a galvanic shock through the agency of the 

 uterine nervous system, at the moment of its secretion, giving rise to fermentation 

 in the sugar alone, a substance the author believed the only one likely to produce 

 it within the breast. This process did not necessarily give rise to the formation of 

 lactic acid ; had it done so, it would have destroyed the animalcules ; moreover, in no 

 single instance was the milk ever found acid. He referred to some experiments of 

 Uerthelot to show that fermentation of sugar coidd take place in alkaline fluids; 

 and the rapidity with which milk containing these animalcules is decomposed and 

 turns sour out of the breast, now generating a large quantity of lactic acid, the 

 author considered a strong proof of fermentation having previously commenced 

 within the breast. ' 



He believed it very probable that the animalcules were generated from the sur- 

 face of the mucous membrane of the lactiferous tubes, bv the fermentation of the 

 sugar at the moment of its secretion from the blood, and this in some cases explained 

 the large numbers present. The necessary connexion subsisting between the mam- 

 mary glands and uterine organs, explained the influence of the latter in producing 

 the heat and internal congestion of the former by reflex nervous agency, giving rise 

 to the conditions described, in which the vitality of the milk was much impaired. 



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