<Yes, the illustrators have often been much too 'generous' in their
interpretation of Sir Astley Cooper's original diagram, and each new
illustrator relies on the previous 'generation' of diagrams, or even just
the general memory of them (hasn't each of us done this in drawing a hasty
illustration??) in order to draw his newer illustration, and pretty soon, we
end up with a pictorial version of the old 'telephone game'! >
I have heard Donna Ramsay, the ultrasonographer in Peter Hartmann's team,
talk several times and on one occasion she spoke about visiting the place
where Sir Astley Cooper's actual illustrations are (sorry, can't remember
details). Anyway, she worked out that the way he was able to "see" the ducts
was to inject coloured fluid/wax/ something into the ducts and the way he
kept the fluid in the ducts was by TYING the ends. She concluded that the
"lactiferous sinuses" were actually artefacts caused by this technique. And
then, as Jean says, others have just copied his diagrams without questioning
their accuracy.
At the recent New Zealand lactation consultants conference, the Hartmann
team demonstrated their techniques on stage. Two local women (one at a
time), sat on stage and used the pump. Donna showed the ultrasound of their
breast - including visualising the let-down (huge widening of the ducts) and
the absence of lactiferous sinuses. Jackie Kent collected the milk, Ching
measured fat content of the milk as the expressing progressed. The results
and ultrasound were projected onto the screens. I can't really do justice to
the demonstration, but it was certainly impressive. They were using the pump
as a tool to learn about breast function, and there was no promotion of the
pump itself.
In Australia (and New Zealand) the "missing" lactiferous sinuses are old
news.
Lisa Amir
MBBS, MMed, IBCLC in Melbourne, Australia
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