COMPOSITION OF HUMAN MILK IN AUSTRALIA. 171 



The first set of figures is from sixty analyses of the milk 

 of women living in America, carried out by Leeds (1884); 

 the second set of figures is from ninety-four analyses of 

 the milk of women living in England, carried out by Carter 

 and Droop Richmond (1898); the third set of figures is 

 from fifty-three analyses of the milk of women living in 

 Germany, due to Oamerer and Soldner (1895, 1896, 1898). 



From this table will be seen the amounts to which the 

 percentages of the various constituents of human milk may 

 vary. It will be noticed that these variations are greatest 

 in the case of the fat, and least in the case of the sugar. 

 It will be seen also that the average figure given for the 

 protein-content of human milk by Oamerer and Soldner, 

 is considerably lower than that given by the other inves- 

 tigators. The former workers estimated protein by 

 determining the nitrogen of the tannic acid precipitate 

 from the milk and multiplying this quantity by the factor 

 6*25, the latter workers estimated the protein by the 

 method of Ritthausen (precipitation by means of alkaline 

 copper sulphate, extraction of the precipitate with ether, 

 and direct weighing, or estimation of the nitrogen in it). 



Practically all of the analyses of human milk available 

 to the present author were, with the exception of the 

 results of Leeds and of Adriance and Adriance, who analysed 

 the milk of women living in America, of the milk of women 

 living in Europe. In the present communication the results 

 of the analyses of samples of milk from over one hundred 

 European women living in Australia are submitted. A 

 simple application of the theory of probability to these 

 results has been made in the endeavour to arrive at a better 

 defined general quantitative statement as to the composition 

 of the milk examined than is given by the admittedly inade- 

 quate method of simply stating the mean, maximum, and 

 minimum values for each constituent. The influence of the 



