. Cyclopædia of obstetrics and gynecology. e fat-globules in these cells is best observed at thebeginning of the secretion of milk, and inthe colostrum, the thin fluid which is pouredout from the nijDple during the first stageof glandular activity. The quality and quan-tity of the milk sacretion are of the greatestinterest to the obstetrician and physician,less so to the surgeon. On the cessation oflactation, the acini collapse, though they donot disappear, but persist without secreting,only to be again, during the next pregnancy,first filled with cells and later again withmilk. The connective
. Cyclopædia of obstetrics and gynecology. e fat-globules in these cells is best observed at thebeginning of the secretion of milk, and inthe colostrum, the thin fluid which is pouredout from the nijDple during the first stageof glandular activity. The quality and quan-tity of the milk sacretion are of the greatestinterest to the obstetrician and physician,less so to the surgeon. On the cessation oflactation, the acini collapse, though they donot disappear, but persist without secreting,only to be again, during the next pregnancy,first filled with cells and later again withmilk. The connective tissue of the glandremains relaxed, and is soon transformedinto fatty tissue, but it does not again takeon the firm hyaline condition seen in thevirgin state of the gland. With the complete cessation of menstru-ation about the fiftieth year, at the time ofthe so-called involution, atrophy of thegland-tissue begins—that is to say, a withering of the glandular epithe-lium and collapse of the acini. Only the excretory ducts remain, though. Fig. 8.—Milk-Duct from the BreastOF AN Old Woman, in which the wholeglandular parenchjTTia was slirunken,•with collapse of the ducts, which werefilled with a greenish cloudj- fluid andwere in places varicose; only in onesmall branch were rudiments of wastedfiner ducts to be seen, x 27. (Langer.) ANATOMY OF THE BREASTS. 9 their epithelium withers. At the lobular ends of the excretory duots ofold women, we may often find the traces of the collapsed canals. (Fig. 8).The breast of an old woman consists, then, of nothmg more than con-nective tissue with fat and tliese gland-canals. Whatever portion of thegland-substance disappears is at times so completely compensated for bythe addition of adipose tissue, that the breasts of well-nourished oldwomen often have a round form and do not appear at all atrophied,although there may be no glandular tissue remaining. In thin old womenmany thick elastic fibres are found scattered through the connective
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