"Mammary ducts injected with red, yellow, black, green and brown wax."

These figures represent subjects aged from two through to old age. The examples in the first row are from pre-pubescent girls. Various influences - pregnancy, lactation, multiple or no offspring and menopause - are said to affect the appearance of the remaining figures. A few of these nipple drawings were derived from cadavers. It all seems fairly random, although obviously meant - from the accompanying notes - as a general guide to physiological and appearance changes.

"Ducts injected more minutely with yellow, red, green, blue and black wax.

Seen most specifically in the middle figure, ligamenta suspensoria (aka Cooper's ligaments, after the author of this book) is a network of fibrous connective tissue throughout the breast. It provides structural support for all the anatomical components and is responsible for giving the breast its characteristic shape.

The top figure shows wax-injected milk ducts leading from small secretory glandules to the nipple. The bottom figure is a magnified version of one of those tracts and the middle drawings show the glandules at higher magnification again.

Arteries and Veins

In both of these images, arteries are shown in red and veins in yellow. That large figure at bottom in the second image is a complicated drawing of a subject facing towards us. It is attempting to show the route of both shallow and deep blood vessels in relation to the ribs. A section of the collar bone can be seen at the top and the edge of the sternum is on the right: therefore, this is a view of the circulation in the right breast.

The plate shows the cross sectional appearance of the mammary gland from about one to eleven years of age (across the top row). The central large figures on the page depict the gland size in subjects from age thirteen (at the top) to twenty four years. Details on either side show the magnified foliate appearance of the papillae of the nipple. There are also drawings of dissected ducts at the nipple terminus and sections showing the incredible abundance of minute blood vessels at the nipple surface.

The lactiferous tubes (milk ducts), injected with wax, in a deceased subject who was lactating at the time of her death.

"This plate is intended to show the external appearance of the nipple in the male at different ages, the internal appearance of the gland as covered by its fascia at different periods of life, the glands and the ducts of the male gland injected, and the gland and ducts of the foetus" The illustrations with dark backgrounds are ducts of the male mammary gland after they have been injected with mercury which helps, like the wax in other images, to delineate and visualise the micro-structure.

"Divided into two glands, one placed on the right, and the other upon the left side of the anus and vulva." "Professor Owen informs me that some milk which he obtained from a porpoise felt like butter upon the tongue."

The top three figures are from the guinea pig.

The top left image (magnified milk ducts and milk cells) and the bottom image (pair of teats, each with twelve mamillary orifices) belong to the rhino.

"There are in the ewe two teats, leading into two large glands, and there are sometimes imperfect teats behind.The milk tubes of the teats open into a reservoir, capable of containing many ounces of milk, and a mucous membrane lines it, similar to that which lines the teat. Milk canals begin from the reservoirs, and these form a foliage on the surface of the gland." Of the Milk of the Ewe: "It is abundant, and is sometimes used as the food of children. It forms a considerable quantity of cream. Its butter retains a large quantity of curd, and therefore it easily becomes rancid. Its cheese is rich but contains much oily matter."

'Of the Mammary Gland in the Rabbit'