A. T. Cowie – författare

Milk: the Mammary Gland and Its Secretion, Volume II, provides an overview of the state of knowledge in lactation. The book opens with a study on the metabolic cost of lactating, and the role of diet in sustaining lactation. This is followed by separate chapters on the nutrition of the lactating ruminant, mare, and sow, with special emphasis to the nutritional requirements; and the three major metabolic diseases of cattle, and particularly lactating cows: parturient paresis (milk fever), hypomagnesaemia (grass tetany), and ketosis. Subsequent chapters deal with the nutritive needs for lactation in the rat; the chemical and nutritional characteristics of the milk; and breast milk and cow''s milk as food for infants. The final chapters discuss the problems of the post-natal phase of growth and development of the young, and the effects of the amount and composition of the milk supply; and the immunological aspects of colostrum.

Research on the hormonal control oflactation - the subject of this monograph - has long been the major interest of this laboratory. Studies were initiated in the mid 1930s by the late Professor S. 1. Folley, FRS, who directed the work with immense enthusiasm and devotion until his untimely death in 1970. This fruitful area of basic and applied research has, in recent years, attracted widespread attention; there have been many exciting events and developments with a dramatic increase in the number of publications. These events are diverse and include the identification, isolation and sequencing of human prolactin; the identification and isolation of placentallactogens in several ruminant species with recognition of their importance in mammary growth and differentiation; the introduction of highly sensitive bioassay, radioimmuno- and radioreceptor-assay techniques for mammotrophic hormones; the growing clinical appreciation of the immunological and nutritional importance of colostrum and milk to the newborn; the intensification of studies on normal mammogenesis to establish a sound basis for studies on mammary cancer; and the exploitation of the mammary gland, with its characteristic differentiation patterns and multiple synthetic abilities, as a valuable tissue for the investigation of basic mechanisms involved in the synthesis under hormonal control of enzymes and secretory proteins; and for the study of hormone - receptor interactions.