1912.] 



The Metabolism of Lactating Women. 



109 



(b) The increase in weight of healthy children breast fed under similar 

 normal conditions is roughly proportional to the amount of the creatin in 

 the mother's urine. In other words, the creatin excreted in the urine seems 

 to have some relation to the nutriment given by the mother to her child. 



(c) If owing to a toxcemic condition the activity of the breasts is delayed 

 after childbirth, the creatin excretion is also delayed, and both develop 

 synchronously in such cases. 



(d) The early suppression of mammary gland activity by the development 

 of fever and mammary gland abscesses is accompanied by the suppression of 

 the creatin excretion. On the other hand, purgation and bandaging do not 

 diminish the creatin excretion of the puerperium. Nor do they suppress 

 mammary gland activity in the same way as illness does, for the breasts 

 remain hard and knotty, and milk can usually be squeezed out for a con- 

 siderable time after such treatment. 



4. Feeding with casein does not affect the creatin excretion of a parturient 

 woman. 



5. The post-parium excretion of creatin is dissimilar from that accom- 

 panying acidosis and lack of carbohydrates. Lactose and glucose, added to 

 the diet, do not appear to affect the creatin excretion. 



The expenses of this research were defrayed by a grant from the Govern- 

 ment Grant Committee of the Royal Society. 



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