r; five months after the rabbit bore
young and the gland secreted milk freely. The case has been
reported of a woman whose spinal cord was destroyed by an
accident at the level of the fifth and sixth dorsal vertebrae,
yet lactation was perfectly normal (_British Medical Journal_,
August 5, 1899, p. 374). We are driven to suppose that there is
some chemical change in the blood, some internal secretion from
the uterus or the ovaries, which acts as a direct stimulant to
the breasts. (See a comprehensive discussion of the phenomena of
the connection between the breasts and sexual organs, though the
conclusions are not unassailable, by Temesvary, _Journal of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire_, June, 1903).
That this hypothetical secretion starts from the womb rather than
the ovaries seems to be indicated by the fact that removal of
both ovaries during pregnancy will not suffice to prevent
lactation. In favor of the ovaries, see Beatson, _Lancet_, July,
1896; in favor of the uterus, Armand Routh, "On the Interaction
between the Ovaries and the Mammary Glands," _British Medical
Journal_, September 30, 1899.

While, however, the communications from the sexual organs to the breast
are of a complex and at present ill understood character, the
communication from the breasts to the sexual organs is without doubt
mainly and chiefly nervous. When the child is put to the breast after
birth the suction of the nipple causes a reflex contraction of the womb,
and it is held by many, though not all, authorities that in a woman who
does not suckle her child there is some risk that the womb will not return
to its normal involuted size. It has also been asserted that to put a
child to the breast during the early months of pregnancy causes so great a
degree of uterine contraction that abortion may result.

Freund found in Germany that stimulation of the nipples by an
electrical cupping apparatus brought about contraction of the
pregnant uterus. At an earlier period it was recommended to
irritate the nipple in order to excite the uterus to parturient
action. Simpson, while pointing out that this was scarcely
adequate to produce the effect desired, thought that placing a
child to the breast after labor had begun might increase uterine
action. (J.Y. Simpson, _Obstetric Memoirs_, vol. i, p. 836; also
Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel