Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/105

 addition of acids, but healthy human milk will not do so. No coagulation is effected either by acids, alcohol, rennet, or by infusion of the stomach of the foetus, at least for some days. Neither has it the same tendency to run into acescency that cows' milk exhibits. In speaking of this phenomenon, I am aware that it applies only to the milk of such mothers as are supported by a generous diet; where this is not the case, the milk will not have the same properties, and this will account for the variety of results obtained by different chemists. It is, indeed, a practical fact, of no small utility to know, that the constituent properties of the lacteal fluid vary with the quantity and quality of the food. Experiments have been made, that place this matter in a striking light in animals of the Mammalia class. It has been ascertained, for instance, that if a suckling bitch be made to live, for eight days, on vegetable aliment alone, its milk will readily undergo spontaneous separation, and be coagulable by the ordinary means. But, if the same bitch be fed solely with raw flesh, the quantity of her milk will sustain a considerable decrease, but it will resist spontaneous coagulation, and instead of the acidulous, will present alkalescent properties. Here we have experimental proof of the tendency of the mammary secretion in animals to vary with the nature of the aliment, nor can it be doubted that the same tendency obtains in the milk of the human female. Neither should it be forgotten that other causes as well as diet, exercise a material agency in modifying the human milk. We know that intemperance of any kind will influence its