On the mammary secretion : and its pathological changes / By Alexander Peddie.

  • Peddie, Alexander, 1810-1907.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mammary secretion : and its pathological changes / By Alexander Peddie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    in judging from the sign, when there was an opportunity of watching the course of CA^ents, warrants in me stating, that I have never found it fail in regard to those loho were gravid for the first time, or in regard to those who were not pregnant at all. And although the greater number of cases of pregnancy in which I have had an opportunity of applying the test, have been advancing in the fourth month, yet so early as the end of the second and the beginning of the third months the sign has held good. It is not, however, until about the termination of the third, and more generally in the cur- rency of the fourth months, that the medical man is consulted, when the repeated non-appearance of the menses attract the notice, and excite the interest or fear of the individual, according as the moral feelings may be affected. And as the value of the sign is not insisted upon in its application to other than first pregnancies, within this limitation is included the class of cases, which, above all others, are of most frequent occurrence and importance, and which occasion most trouble and anxiety to the practitioner. Perhaps the value of this sign in the early months, has been doubted or mider-estimated, in consequence of not observing fluid trickle from the nipples, as it frequently does in the last month of preg- nancy. I believe that this will rarely happen in the commencement of a fii'st gestation. The fluid must be brought; and the method of obtaining it, under doubtful circumstances, is to press the finger and the thumb firmly on the mammary gland, a little beyond the margin of the areola, and then draAv them to the point of the nipple with a stripping and expi'essing movement. This repeated three or four times, will certainly bring fluid if any be present; and a single drop will suflRce to prove the nature of the case. A little moisture fi'om the sebaceous follicles of the ai'eola, which is sometimes produced during these efforts, must not be mistaken for a lactic secretion. I believe that this Idnd of exudation, which may occur in ordinary circumstances, has actually led, in some instances, to the rejection of the sign which I am now advocating. It is recommended also, that if a drop of fluid is not obtained from one nipple, the other ought to be tried, as the orifices of the lactife- rous tubes are sometimes more narrow or glued up in the one than in the other breast, and in primiparse this is more particularly the case. In the early months of a first pregnancy the secretion has seldom the external appearance of milk, but is serous-looking, and often very viscid and syrupy. Wlien submitted, however, to the microscope, the characteristic milk globules (described p. 3) mil at once be de- tected ; and these will be seen agglomerated en masse, the solid portion being nt this period in a large ratio to the fluid, which latter is also peculiarly glutinous. Mixed with these groups will be perceived an abundance of large oil globules and colostrum granules, as in the green milk of recent parturition. There are sometimes found also a few epithelial lamellfe, which have been separated from the lining