ABSORPTION FROM THE BODY IN GENERAL. 201 



in the Skin, also, a most copious distribution of capillary bloodvessels, the 

 arrangement of which is by no means unlike that of the bloodvessels of the 

 alimentary canal; and its surface is further extended by the elevations that 

 form the sensory papilla?, which are in many points comparable to the intes- 

 tinal villi, although their special function is so different. 



144. In the lowest tribes of animals, and in the earliest condition of the 

 hiii'her, it would seem as if Absorption by the external surface is almost 

 equally important to the maintenance of life, with that which takes place 

 through the internal reflexion of it forming the walls of the Digestive cavity. 

 In the adult condition of most of the higher animals, however, the special 

 function of the intestinal tract is so much exalted as usually to supersede 

 the necessity of any other supply ; and the function of the cutaneous and 

 pulmonary surfaces may be considered as rather that of exhalation than of 

 absorption. We have a remarkable exception to this general statement, 

 however, in the case of Frogs and other Batrachia, which are characterized 

 by the softness of their skins and the thinness of their epidermic covering; 

 for cutaneous absorption seems in them to be no less active than their cuta- 

 neous exhalation and respiration are well known to be. And even in the 

 higher animals there are peculiar conditions of the system in which the im- 

 bibition of fluid through these surfaces is performed with great activity, sup- 

 plying what would otherwise be a most important deficiency. It may take 

 place either through the direct application of fluid to the surface, or even 

 through the medium of the atmosphere, in which a greater or less propor- 

 tion of watery vapor is usually dissolved. This absorption occurs most 

 vigorously when the system has been drained of its fluid, either by an excess 

 of the excretions, or by a diminution of the regular supply. 



145. It may be desirable to adduce some individual cases, which will set 

 this function in a striking point of view ; and those may be first noticed in 

 which the Absorption took place through the contact of liquids with the 

 skin. It is well known that shipwrecked sailors and others who are suffering 

 from thirst, owing to the want of fresh water, find it greatly alleviated, or 

 altogether relieved, by dipping their clothes into the sea and putting them 

 on whilst still wet, or by frequently immersing their own bodies. 1 In a case 

 related by Dr. Currie, of a patient laboring under dysphagia in its most ad- 

 vanced stage (the introduction of any nutriment, whether solid or fluid, into 

 the stomach, having become perfectly impracticable), an attempt was made 

 to prolong his existence by the administration of nutritive enemata, and by 

 immersion of the body, night and morning, in a bath of milk and water. 

 During the continuance of this plan, his weight, which had previously been 

 rapidly diminishing, remained stationary, although the quantity of the ex- 

 cretions was increased. How much of the absorption, which must have been 

 effected to replace the amount of excreted fluid, is to be attributed to the 

 baths, and how much to the enemata, it is not easy to say ; but it is im- 

 portant to remark that " the thirst, which was troublesome during the first 

 days of the patient's abstinence, was abated, and, as he declared, removed 

 by the tepid bath, in which he had the most grateful sensations." " It can- 

 not be doubted," Dr. Currie observes, " that the discharge by stool and per- 

 spiration exceeded the weight of the clysters ;" and the loss by the urinary 

 excretion, which increased from 24 oz. to 36 oz. under this system, is only 

 to be accounted for by the cutaneous absorption. 2 Dr. S. Smith mentions 



1 See a collection of such cases in Dr. Madden 's Experimental Inquiry into the 

 Physiology of Cutaneous Absorption, p. 47. 



2 Medical Reports, vol. i, pp. 308-3'26. Eichhorst (Pfitiger's Archiv, Band iv, part 

 xii) classes various peptones, muscular flesh, casein of milk, salified egg-albumen, and 



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