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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    suckliug; when it Is ordinary, conception generally occurs about one year after the last delivery; and when it is feeble, many months more, or years may elapse, ere the woman becomes again pregnant. On the whole, therefore, it appears that there is no cer- tain relation between periods of lactation and gravidity, and that the latter condition is dependent on constitutional peculiarities. But even did certain data establish the supposed protective influ- ence of prolonged suckling, the end desired would not justify the means adopted, if it is found to endanger seriously the constitution of mother and child. On the other hand, supposing pregnancy should occur while a child is at the breast, as often happens, un- known for a considerable time to the individual herself, the effects on both are still moi'e hurtful; or if, as is also very commonly the case, the mother goes on nursing for twelve, eighteen, or twenty months, or even longer, in the vain hope of averting a future evil, she is not only periling her infant's life, but as she may become pregnant immediately after the weaning, between alternate long- continued suckling and gravidity, her vital energies are so exhausted as to entail a train of the most disastrous consequences on her own constitution and on that of her offspring. When a woman becomes pregnant during lactation, if other symp- toms do not enable us to give an opinion, the microscope is a most im])ortant diagnostic guide ; for then the colostric characters of the milk are apparent, and thus we can, wdthout hesitation, advise an immediate abandonment of suckling. The consequences of unduly prolonged lactation ai*e sufficiently well known to render a lengthened statement unnecessary. The generality of women are in the possession of the best of health, and in the enjoyment of the greatest amount of earthly happiness Avhile nursing, unless they are oppressed with much fatigue, or harassed with anxiety or other ills of life. It is a natural function, in the performance of which the warmest sympathies and liveliest emotions are excited, and a tone thus imparted to the physical constitution as well as to the mind. Nor should the good effect of lactation, properly performed, cease with weaning. It is permanent, and tends to the prolongation of female existence ; but when continued beyond the term which nature has pointed out, it exhausts her strength, and, according to the character of her constitution, so are the evils resulting more complicated, severe, or lasting. From a consideration of this, it is easy to perceive that an offspring reared from an exhausted body, must, like the plants of a worn-out soil, pine away a sickly and delicate existence. The most common evils entailed on a nurse by this practice are severe headachs, giddi- nesses, blindnesses, inordinate and irregular action of the heart, loss of appetite, general debility, lowness of spirits and hysterical affec- tions, smking feelings, pain in back and loins with dragging sensa- tions, Icucoirhocal discharges, and nicnorrhagia. Such symptoms variously combined, and many others, may exist during sucklino-,
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