HUMAN MILK. III. It contains more sugar of milk.* 95 Parmentier and Deyeux ascertained that the quantity of curd in woman's milk increases in proportion to the time after delivery. They also observed that when milk is drawn from the breast often and at short intervals, the milk is constantly thin and affords very little nourishment to the infant. They, therefore, recommend as essential to healthy nutrition, that the intervals of suckling be as great as possible without injury to the nurse or child; and that when the infant is placed at the breast, it should be allowed to remain until it draws away all that will come freely, for the last is invariably the richest and best. The prevailing opinion that human milk is coagulable, has arisen from the single circumstance that infants frequently vomit the milk which they suck in a state of apparent coagulation, but this idea is disproved by high authority. Mr. Clark having utterly failed after numerous experiments to coagulate human milk, says, "I am persuaded that rich milk in a healthy state will be found to contain little or no curd, and that the general opinion of its nature is founded upon fallacious analogy and superficial observations made upon the matter vomited up by infants. We may presume that the cream of woman's milk, by its inferior specific gravity, will swim on the surface of the contents of the stomach; and being of an oily nature, that it will be of more difficult digestion than any other constituent part of the milk. When an infant, then, sucks very plentifully so as to over-distend the stomach, or labors under weakness in the powers of digestion, it cannot appear unreasonable to suppose, that the cream will be first rejected by vomiting. Analogous to this we know that adults, affected * Thompson's Chem., Vol. IV. p. 389. 96 VARIATIONS OF HUMAN MILK. with dyspepsia, often bring up greasy fluids from the stomach by eructation, and this especially after eating fat meat.”* He appears to derive a confirmation of this opinion from the observation that curds vomited up by infants of a few days old are yellow, whilst in the course of a fortnight or three weeks they become white. This he accounts for from the yellow color of the cream yielded by the milk of women, during the first four or five days after delivery. We have dwelt the longer on this particular, as these views are at variance with the generally received opinion on the subject. Another remarkable property of human milk is, that it is far less prone to acidity than other milk. It is well known that the milk of ruminant animals will become acid at a medium temperature in the course of from twelve to twenty hours, and in the course of a few days offensively putrid. But healthy human milk, exposed in the same manner, will not undergo the same change in many weeks, and sometimes not in many months. There is, moreover, greater variations in the quality of woman's milk, than in any other. This is observable not only in different persons, but in the same persons under different circumstances. These irregularities may generally be attributed, either to diet, the alternations of health or disease, or probably more frequently to the influence of the mental emotions, which as they happen to be unfavorably affected, produce corresponding changes in the milk that seriously injure the health of the infant, and in some instances have proved fatal. The following case related by Dr. Von Ammon, physician to the king of Saxony (as quoted by Dr. Combe), * Enc. Britan., Vol. XV. p. 75. HUMAN MILK, HOW AFFECTED. 97 very strikingly illustrates the destructive influence of strong excitement in the mother, on the system of the infant.* "A carpenter quarreled with a soldier billeted in his house, and was set upon by the latter with his drawn sword. The wife of the carpenter at first trembled from fear and terror, and then suddenly threw herself furiously between the combatants, wrested the sword from the soldier's hand, broke it in pieces, and threw it away. During the tumult, some neighbors came in and separated the men. While in this state of strong excitement, the mother took up her child from the cradle, where it lay playing and in most perfect health, never having had a moment's illness; she gave it the breast, and in so doing sealed its fate. In a few minutes the infant left off, became restless, panted, and sank dead on its mother's bosom. The physician who was instantly called in found the child lying in the cradle as if asleep, and with its features undisturbed; but all his resources were fruitless. It was irrecoverably gone." Were it necessary, other instructive cases might be cited, but this may suffice. It is no objection to the foregoing illustration that it is a strong one. Similar effects from like causes may in all ordinary cases be expected to follow, proportioned in degree, of course, not only to the suddenness and violence of the paroxysms, but also to their duration. * Die ersten Mutterpflichten und erste Kindesplfege, p. 102, 3d Edit. Leipsig, 1839. CHAPTER XI. MILK OF DIFFERENT ANIMALS. Ass's milk compared with cow's milk.-In what it chiefly differs.Mare's milk. Its properties.-Less nutritious than any other.— Abounds in saccharine matter.-Method of obtaining an intoxicating liquor therefrom.-Goat's milk.-Its properties.—Evaporation of five kinds of milk and results.-Comparison of different kinds.-Ewe's, camel's, sow's, and bitch's milk.—Medicinal properties of the latter.-Whale's milk.-Its lactescent organs.-The constituents of six kinds of milk compared.-The differences in milk referred to the digestive process.-Evidences of design in milk.-Milk, the great alimentary prototype. Ass's milk, is also very different from that of the cow. Its cream and milk are both very similar in color and consistence to woman's milk; containing like it fewer salts and less cream, but more saccharine matter than cow's milk. Butter may be separated from the cream by very long agitation, but it is always extremely soft, insipid and sour, and soon becomes rancid. If allowed to stand, the butter readily mixes again with the fluid from which it had been separated, and by renewed agitation the butter may again be obtained. The milk when creamed has a sweetish palatable taste. It does not spontaneously coagulate. Alcohol and acids will form, however, a little curd, but it is uniformly of a soft and flaky character. The whey yields sugar of milk in the proportion of 35:80; and muriate of lime, often mixed with common salt. The milk of this animal chiefly differs from that of the cow in three particulars: I. Its cream is less abundant. II. It contains less caseous matter. III. It contains more sugar of milk.* It is now generally admitted, that there is nothing peculiar in this milk more than in any other, to warrant a belief in the medical qualities which have been ascribed to it. Mare's milk resembles good cow's milk in color, but it is thinner, being of a medium consistence between that and human milk. When the milk is creamed, it coagulates like cow's milk, but it contains far less caseous matter, and very few oily particles. The cream is very fluid, and cannot be converted into butter; the whey is nearly colorless, contains a large proportion of saccharine matter, and small portions of sulphate of lime, and muriate of lime. This milk is more insipid and less nutritious than any other, yet it has been strongly recommended as a diet for feeble and consumptive persons. In such cases it is probably preferred, because its easy assimilation better adapts it to the weakened state of the digestive organs, and the generally debilitated condition of the patient. From the quantity of saccharine matter which this milk contains, it is by particular management susceptible of vinous fermentation, and a small portion of alcohol is consequently developed. But this result is not so readily obtained from milk as from other substances which more abound with sugar or farinaceous matter. The Tartars, however, are famous for an intoxicating drink which they prepare from this milk, denominated koumiss; the Arabs make a similar liquor called leban; and the Turks a beverage of like qualities known as yaourt. But the saccharine principle * Thompson's Chem., Vol. IV. p. 389. |