Breast versus bottle : a history of infant feeding in Malta

Abstract

One of the major biological elements that characterise the Class MAMMALIA is the presence of mammary glands derived from a modification of sweat glands. These first appear in embryonic life as clumps of cells proliferating from a longitudinal ridge of ectoderm (the outermost of the three germ layers of the embryo) along the so-called milk line, from the buds, or beginnings, of the lower limbs to those of the upper limbs. The number of these clumps that ultimately become breasts, or mammae, varies with each mammalian species according to the size of its litter. The mammae in the female of the species serve to produce nourishment for infant mammals.