The Miracle of Producing Milk (1/3)

“Verily in cattle there is a lesson for you: We give you to drink of what is inside their bellies, from among chyme and from among blood, pure milk palatable to those who drink it” (Surah An-Nahl, 16: 66)

Introduction

Human beings have long realized the relationship between the milk secreted and the food eaten by the animal and noticed that the animal would die if it were not provided with food. But they did not know the process of changing the food into milk, flesh, bone, or any other substance.

Modern science has shown us the steps that lead to the formation of milk that is palatable to the drinkers, thus revealing such Signs of Allah, the Most Kind, All-Aware of everything, as agree with what the Qur’an has told us concerning the synthesis of milk in the bellies of cattle, and showing the great Grace of the Creator on His slaves.

Historical Chronology of Scientific Discoveries:

Man could not know how milk is synthesized in the bellies of cattle except after he discovered the mysteries of the digestive system and learned the functions of its organs, and after the discovery of the blood circulation and its connection to the absorption of the nutrients from the intestines and their entrance into the blood. It took a long period of time extending for around five centuries to develop the required instruments and to discover the secrets.

A. The development of the instruments and devices of research:

Experimental science has followed precise methods to find out the functions of the organs of the digestive system after the invention of the instruments by which experiments and researches were carried out to arrive at precise conclusions. This was not realized but recently. Biologists and physicians in the 14th and 15th centuries were unable to translate their scientific observations into drawings and pictures, and they were less able to distribute them among the students because of the unavailability of the means of publication.

Progress in the scientific instruments used in discovering the mysteries of the process of digestion went on in successive steps till lots of the secrets of digestion were revealed to the researchers.[1]

B. The history of learning the functions of the organs of the digestive system:

Scientific discoveries concerning the functions of the organs of the digestive system continued[2] from 1833 till the twentieth century, when the successive steps of the digestive process could be illustrated, such as the degradation of the proteins by the gastrointestinal enzyme chains. The structure and effect of the most important digestive juices were shown also, besides confirming the existence of a lot of enzymes that play a key role in the process of digesting the food, such as lactase, lipase and protease, etc. In addition, the effect of the various enzymes functioning in the different stages of the digestive process was discovered.[3]

In 1902 AD Bayliss and Starling together discovered the hormone of secretin.[4] In 1911 AD W. V. Canon illustrated the mechanic factors involved in the process of digestion. In 1913 AD R. Glinard presented a study showing the movement of the intestines recorded on a film.[5]

C. The history of the blood circulation:

Ibn al-Nafis discovered the lesser blood circulation. Prior to that it had been said that blood was purified in the cavity of the heart. Andrea Alpago translated the work of Ibn al-Nafis at the beginning of the sixteenth century into Latin and the translation was published in Venice in 1547 AD.[6] Thereafter we had Harvey’s researches on blood circulation and they were among the most remarkable researches before the 19th century.[7]

In 1877 AD Laude Bernard proved that the amount of glucose in the blood was constant and that any disturbance in it would cause diabetes.[8] He corrected the concept of Lavoisier and Laplace that the lungs were the center of combustion by saying that combustion takes place in the various tissues.[9]

Marey (1830-1904) improved the technologies of studying the work of the heart and the lungs. His investigations covered the blood circulation (1863, 1881) and the physiology of movement or motion.[10]

In the field of the physiology of blood circulation since the 19th century several things have been studied, such as the nerves that modify and accelerate the heart, the vascular movement, and other phenomena that are involved in the arterial pressure. These things were investigated extensively during the 20th century.

After using radioactive isotopes the exchanges that take place at the capillaries were better understood.

Thus the way milk is synthesized from the food eaten by cattle was discovered after man had discovered the secrets of digestion and its stages, the functions of the organs of the digestive system, blood circulation, the function of the heart and blood vessels and their routes throughout the body and their relationships with the digestive system and all other parts of the body including the udders and mammary glands of cattle.

(Continued)