M I L K. 
^ 8 © 
Bidden change of food, even from a worfe to a better 
kind, was attended by a very remarkable diminution in 
the quantity of milk. All the refiduums of the diitilla- 
tions yielded, in a flrong fire, a yellow oil and acid, a thick 
.and black empyreiunatic oil, a volatile alkali, and to¬ 
wards the end a quantity of inflammable air; and at laft 
a coal remained, containing fome fixed alkali with muria¬ 
tic acid. On agitating in long bottles the creams from 
the milk of cows fed with different fubllances, all of them 
were formed into a kind of half-made butter; of which 
-that formed from the milk from maize was white, firm, 
and inlipid ; that from potatoes was fofter and more pin- 
guedinous ; but that from common grafs was the belt of 
all. Cabbage, as in other cafes, gave a ftrong tafte. 
In their experiments upon the milk of various animals, 
it was found, that the milk of afi'es yielded by diitilla- 
tion an in lipid liquor, and deposited a liquor limilar to 
the lymph of cows’ milk. It is coagulated by all the 
acids, but not into an uniform mafs; exhibiting only the 
appearance of diflindt flocculi. It affords but little cream, 
which is converted with difficulty into a foft butter that 
jfoon becomes rancid It has but a fmall quantity of fac- 
charine particles, aim thefe are often mixed with muriatic 
feleniteand common lalt. Goats’ milk has a thick cream ; 
and the milk itlelf may be preferved longer in a found 
Hate than any other fpecies, the fcum on its furface being 
naturally convertible into palatable cheefe. It is eafily 
made into firm butter, which does not loon become ran¬ 
cid, and has a good flavour. The butter-milk contains 
a large quantity of clieefy matter, which readily coagu¬ 
lates ; but has ftiil lefs faccharine matter than that of alles. 
Sheep’s milk can fcarcely be diflinguifhed from that of a 
cow, and eaflly parts with its cream by ftanding. It is 
of a yellow colour, an agreeable flavour, and yields a 
great proportion of butter ; but this is not lolid, and foon 
becomes rancid. Mares’ miik is the moll inlipid and leall 
nutritious of any ; notwithllanding which it has been 
much recommended for weak and confumptive patients : 
in which cafes it is probable that it proves efficacious by 
being more confonant than any other to the debilitated 
powers of digeftion. It boils with a fmaller fire than any 
other kind of milk, is eafily coagulated, and the diltilled 
water does not foon change its nature. It has but a fmall 
quantity of cheely matter, and very few oily particles : 
the cream cannot be made into butter; and the whey 
xontains about as much fugar as cows’ or goats' milk. 
In this memoir our authors remark, that, in order to 
.augment the quantity, as W'ell as to improve the quality, 
of the milk of animals, they Ihould be well fed, their ftalls 
Tcept clean, and their litter frequently renewed ; they 
Ihould be milked at Hated hours, but not drained; great 
attention Ihould alio be paid to the breed, becaufe infe¬ 
rior cattle are maintained at as great expenle as the moll 
■valuable kinds. No change ought to be made in the 
food; though, if the miik be employed for medicinal 
purpofes, it may be improved by a proper mixture of 
herbs, &c. On the management of milch-cows, fee the 
article Husbandry,, vol. X. p. 510-16. 
In their experiments on women’s milk, Mefirs. Parmen- 
jtier and Deyeux differ fomewjhat from Dr. Clarke. They 
jfirft tried the milk of • a woman who had been delivered 
four months ; and obferved, that, after the cream had 
been feparated, the other part appeared of a more perfedl 
white, and that it could not be coagulated either by vine¬ 
gar or mineral acids ; which they attributed to a luper- 
abundance offerum. But they found that in proportion 
to the age of the milk it was found to be more eafily coa- 
gulable; and this was confirmed by experiments made 
Upon the milk of twenty nurfes. Its coagulability was 
not increafed by heat. The cream, by agitation, formed 
ia vilcid undluous matter, but could not be changed into 
perfect butter; but they found that it was extremely diffi¬ 
cult to determine the proportions of the various compo¬ 
nent parts in human milk, as it differs remarkably, not 
only in different fubjedts, but in the famefubjedt at diffe¬ 
rent times. I11 a ntirfe aged about thirty-two years, who 
was extremely fubject to nervous aftedtions, the milk 
wa3 one day found almofl colourlels and tranfparent. 
In two hours after, a fecond quantity drawn from the 
breall was vilcid like the white of an egg. It became 
whiter in a fhort time, but did not recover its natural co¬ 
lour before the evening. It was. afterwards found that 
thefe changes were occafioned by her having had fome - 
violent hyfteric fits in the mean time. 
In the early volumes of the Philofophical Tranfadlions, 
we have fome very extraordinary relations of women from 
60 to 70 years, who have had the milk return to their 
breads fo as to be able to fuckle children effectually. We 
fhall give an abridged account of fome of thefe cafes. 
The firfl is “ A Relation written to the Editor of the 
Tranfadlions from a Perlon of great veracity in Ger¬ 
many,” whole name is not mentioned; of which the fol¬ 
lowing is the material part: “Having taken two months 
ago a nurfe for my littie girl, the boy of that nurfe, hav¬ 
ing been on that occafion weaned, did, by repeatedly fuck¬ 
ing the breafts of bis grandmother, a woman of threefcore 
years of age, caufe inch a commotion in her, that abun¬ 
dance of miik ran to her breafts for a fuflicient nourifh- 
ment tq the laid weaned boy.” The editor, after giving 
the foregoing accounts from his correfpondent, adds ; 
“Sq far this relation: which as it can be confirmed by 
many other like hiftories, given by very credible perlons, 
fo I fhall here fecond it but with one only, recorded by 
the learned Diemerbroeck in the fecond book of his Ana- 
tome corporis humani; as follows : At Viana, a town 
very near us, feme years ago, a poor woman being brought, 
to bed of a fine boy not long after the death of her huf- 
band, and dying prelently after her delivery, left her child 
behind her in good health ; but, leaving nothing to keep 
a nurfe to give the child fuck, the grandmother of the 
babe being yet living, a woman of 66 years of age, but 
very poor alfo, and not able to pay a nurfe, out of great 
pity to the poor child, attempted, though at that age, to 
give it luck herfelf; in which undertaking fhe fucceeded 
fo well, that it was fufficient to feed the child, fo that it 
hardly needed any other food ; which all thatjaw it much 
wondered at, and which can be attefted by many credible 
citizens of the laid town.” Phil. Tranf. lor 1674.. 
“ A gentleman of credit having informed Dr. Stack of 
a woman near 70 years old, who fuckled one of her grand¬ 
children, his curiofity was excited to fee fo uncommon a 
fight; and the more, in order to try if he could not dif- 
cover fome fallacy in the affair. Wherefore he went in 
company with the gentleman, to a houfe in Tottenham- 
Court-Road, where the woman they inquired for appear¬ 
ed in an inffant. Her breafts were full, fair, and void of 
wrinkles ; though her face was very much withered, her 
cheeks and mouth vaftly funk in, and thouglrfhe had, 
in fhort, all the other external marks that one might rea- 
fonably expedt to find in a woman who had Ipent the laft 
half of her paft life in labour, troubles, and other conco¬ 
mitants of poverty, and through them had reached nearly 
to her 70th year. On preffing her right breaft, file fairly 
fqueezed out miik, which gathered in fmall drops at three 
of the ladteal dudts terminating in the .nipple. This ex¬ 
periment Dr. S. made her repeat a fecond time, having 
himfelf carefully dried the end of the nipple with his 
handkerchief, as he had done before her firft trial. Con¬ 
vinced of the truth of the faff, he a (Iced her feveral quef- 
tions about her cafe. The iubflance of the unfwers was 
as follows : Her name by marriage was Elizabeth Brian. 
She was in the 68th year of her age, and had not borne a 
child for twenty years and upwards. About four years 
before, her daughter being obliged to leave an infant fhe 
then gave fuck to, in the care of this her own mother, 
and likely to be a confiderable time abfent; the old wo¬ 
man,, finding the child froward for want of the breall, ap¬ 
plied it to her own, barely in order tq quiet the infant, 
without the leall thoughts of milk. And this having re¬ 
iterated feveral times, a Ion of hers, by that time grown a 
a man, 
