SECRETION OF MILK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19799, 21 November 1927, Page 15

SECRETION OF MILK.

QUESTION OF CONTINUITY. A remarkable experiment was carried wai at a United States dairy experiment farm recently, when the udders of two cows killed were removed immediately after slaughter and mounted in a position for post-mortem milking in a recent test to determine whether milk is manufactured during the few minutes required for the milking process, as is generally taught, or whether it is secreted continuously and collected in the udder previous to milking. It is generally held that the capacity of a cow's udder is not more than a half pint to each quarter, and, therefore that the milk must necessarily be manufactured during the-milking operation. In these tests it was found '^°^" f ever, that a cow's udder "Capable of holding from 11 to 20 quants One of the cows had normally been giv inc about 121b. at a milking. When her udder was milked after being completely severed from all body co " n^ fc 'on s I total of 10.271b. of hulk obtained or more than 85 per cent, of her normal production, indicating that this am ° u had been collected and stored as milk previous to her slaughter. ' nr i The post-mortem milking of the secon £ ow yielded 50 per cent, of her normal production. A considerable of milk still remained due to the diffic J vvith, wljob it United Swet.t, Bureau of Dairy Y ,; y .„ States Department of Agncultun», hai expressed the opinion that these tests indicate that milk secretion is to a considerable extent a continuous process anc that a large proportion of the m lk secured at any milking is col ec ed and stored within the mammary »e.ore milking is commenced; aTso that the lib oration of the milk from the gland is not dependent either upon a nervous or mechanical stimulation or upon internal muscular contraction. It is understood hat extensive studies of the mammary gland me now being made by the bureau m c nection with the project dealing w relation of a dairy cdw's conformation and anatomy to her milk and butter- a p <lucing capacity.