The diseases of the breast, and their treatment / by John Birkett.

  • Birkett, John, 1815-1904.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the breast, and their treatment / by John Birkett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    found to exist particularly within a quarter of an inch of the apex of the nipple, where the calibre of the ducts is small, for here the contractile tissue abounds ; in fact, exists almost alone. When the nipple is placed in the infant's mouth, the warmth of this organ is sufficient to relax this contractile tissue, as we see in other parts, and the milk readily escapes. Again, that condition of the nipple in which it is said to be in a state of erection is nothing more than either a peculiar contracted con- dition of this fibre tissue, or the result of distension of the lactiferous tubes. To enable the infant to suck with facility, the nipple must be elongated • and this condition is effected by the distended state of the tubes. But when the infant is not at the breast, then, by the contractile power of this fibre tissue, the nipple is retracted, and resumes its quiescent state. The same firm, rigid, contracted, and erect position which it assumes when under certain states of mental excitement, is attributable to the property of this pecu- liar fibre tissue, and is analogous to that condition of the integumental investment (they generally exist simultaneously) termed cutis anserinus, or goose skin, the production of which is attributed to the contraction of the same tissue in the cutis. I am quite prepared to deny the existence of true erectile tissue in the nipple. This contractile tissue is gradually lost at the peri- phery of the areola in the common subcutaneous uniting tissue of this region; for here we find that adipose tissue is not developed.