An experimental enquiry into the factors which determine the growth and activity of the mammary glands

Abstract

The correlation between the mammary glands and the other organs concerned in generation presents perhaps the most striking example of the interdependence of the growth and activities of different organs of the body. Although the manner in which this correlation is brought about has been the subject of speculation for many years, especially among medical men, it is only quite recently that any attempt has been made to apply experimental methods to its explanation. In the case of the mammary glands we have organs which are present in both sexes, and at birth are in the same immature condition. In both sexes there is frequently, during the few days after birth, an enlargement of the glands and an actual secretion of fluid, which is known as “witch’s milk.” This state of activity disappears at the end of the first or second week, and till puberty the glands remain in the same undeveloped condition. At this period in Man the first difference appears between the mammary glands of the two sexes, a rapid growth taking place in the female, and accompanying the commencement of the ovarian functions.