The New International Encyclopædia/Agalactia

AGALACTIA, ăg′ȧ-lăk′tĭ-ȧ (Gk., want of milk, from ἀ, a, priv. + γάλα, gala, milk). A lack of the proper secretion of milk after delivery. It may depend either on organic imperfection of the mammary gland or upon constitutional causes. In the latter case the secretion may often be excited by warmth and moisture, by the stimulus of the act of sucking, and if this fails, by drinking plenty of fluids rich in fats and by drugs prescribed by a physician. (See Milk.) It is a contagious disease in sheep and goats, characterized by inflammatory foci in the mammary gland, eyes, and articulations. The disease has been known since 1816, and is especially frequent in Italy, France, and Spain. In the acute form there is high fever accompanied by complete, or almost complete, failure of milk. Death takes place after twenty days in about 15 per cent. of cases.