COMPOSITION OF HUMAN MILK IN AUSTRALIA. 169 



ON THE COMPOSITION OF HUMAN MILK IN 

 AUSTRALIA. 1 



Part I. The Composition during the Early Stages of 



Lactation. 



By H. S. Halcro Wardlaw, b.Sc 



(From the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Sydney.) 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, August 4, 1915.'] 



SYNOPSIS. 



1. Introduction. 



2. Nature of samples and methods of analysis. 



3. Results. 



4. Most probable composition of human milk. 



5. Variation of composition with time since parturition. 



6. Effect of age on composition. 



7. Fat-content of milk of each breast. 



8. Effect of number of pregnancies on composition. 



9. Effect of volume of sample and of period of rest on fat-content. 



10. Summary. 



11. References. 



1. Introduction. 

 Although the composition of human milk has for many 

 years been the subject of investigation, the number of 

 exhaustive series of analyses which exist to day is very 

 small, and as samples of milk from individual women seem 

 so frequently to have compositions which differ widely from 

 that represented by the mean of the results of the separate 

 analyses of a series, it has proved rather difficult to say 

 what is the significance of these mean or average figures, 

 and from them to lay down a certain composition as being 



1 The work of which this paper is an account was carried out in the 

 year 1914, during the author's tenure of a Science Research Scholarship 

 of the University of Sydney. 



