Introduction : dark ecologies : A tale of two cities and "The cow with the iron tail" -- Disavowing milk : psychic disintegration and domestic reintegration in Dickens's Dombey and son -- A river runs through him : Our mutual friend and the embankment of the Thames -- Perilous reversals : fluid exchange in George Eliot's early works -- Merging with others : destiny and flow in Daniel Deronda -- Tempted by the milk of another : the fantasy of limited circulation in Esther Waters -- Ever-widening circulations : Dracula and the fear of management.