ABSORPTION OF THE BODY IN GENERAL. 203 



Hill 1 relates the case of a diabetic patient, who for five weeks passed 24 Ibs. 

 of urine every twenty-four hours ; his ingesta during the same period amounted 

 to 22 Ibs. At the commencement of the disease, he weighed 145 Ibs. ; and 

 when he died, 27 Ibs. of loss had been sustained. The daily excess of the 

 excretions over the fluid ingesta could not have been less than 4 Ibs. ; making 

 140 Ibs. for the thirty-five days during which the complaint lasted. If from 

 this we deduct the amount of diminution which the weight of the body sus- 

 tained during the time, we shall still have 113 Ibs. to be accounted for, which 

 can only have entered the body from the atmosphere. A case of ovarian 

 dropsy has been recorded by Mr. Ford, 2 in which it was observed that the 

 patient, during eighteen days, drank 692 oz. or 43 pints of fluid, and that 

 she discharged by urine and paracentesis 1298 oz. or 91 pints, which leaves 

 a balance of 606 oz. or 38 pints, to be similarly accounted for. 3 



147. The capacity of the Skin to absorb saline or other substances in solu- 

 tion, though formerly generally admitted, has lately been called in question 

 by various observers. In experiments performed by Murray Thomson, 4 with 

 which those of Parisot 5 and Kletzinsky are in accordance, it was found that 

 no trace of iodine could be detected in the morning urine, when a bath, con- 

 taining half an ounce of iodide of potassium dissolved in 80 gallons of water 

 had been taken the previous night after six hours' abstinence from all food. 

 Homolle, 6 whilst admitting that pure water is certainly absorbed, and that 

 saline solutions and some organic mixtures are sometimes decomposed by the 

 skin, apparently by that tissue exerting an elective affinity for one of the 

 constituents, to the exclusion of the others, states that in many instances in 

 which he remained for an hour or more at a time in baths containing 3 oz. 

 of cyanide or iodide of potassium, nitrate of potash, or chloride of ammonium, 

 he was unable to discover any trace of those salts in the urine, nor did he 

 perceive any physiological effect from the employment of baths in which 1 

 Ib. of belladonna or of digitalis leaves had previously been infused. M. 

 Willemiu, and others, 7 on the other hand, maintain that the healthy skin is 

 capable of absorbing not only water, but small portions of various substances 

 soluble in water ; the process of absorption varying under different circum- 

 stances, and often taking place very slowly, but being favored by a delicate 

 skin, and by exhaustion, though it does not take place when the skin is 

 actively perspiring from exercise. The occasional serious effects upon the 

 urinary organs of the application of a blister, the poisonous action of solu- 

 tions of Strychnine, Nicotin and Digitaliu, 8 the tinging of the urine with 

 madder, rhubarb, and turmeric after bathing in infusions of those substances, 9 

 and lastly, the remarkable experiment of Schreger, who found on immersing 

 the hind leg of a puppy for 24 hours in tepid milk, after having previously 

 applied a bandage, that the lymphatics were full of milk, though the veins 



1 Trans, of Mod. Chirurg. Soc. of Edinb., vol. ii. 



2 Medical Communications, vol. ii, p. 130. 



8 In this case, however, as in others of a similar kind, something is to be allowed 

 for the quantity of water contained in the solid food ingested ; but this may be fairly 

 considered not to exceed the quantity lost by pulmonary and cutaneous exhalation, 

 and discharged in the fecal evacuations. 



4 Edin. Med. Jour., 1862, p. 1017. 6 Archiv. Gen. de Med., 1863, p. 376. 



6 De 1'Absorption par la Tegument externe, L'Union Medicale, 1853, p. 462, et seq. 

 See also Reveil, Recherches sur POsmose, 1865; Ore, Gaz. Medicale, 1865, p. 731; 

 Mougeot, Revue Medicale, 1865, t. ii, p. 536. 



7 Archiv. Gen. de Med., 1863, pp. 5, 105, 325; Delore, Ibid., p. 376; Hoffmann, 

 Comptes Eendus, 1867, p. 722; Clemens, Archiv f. wiss. Heilk., Bd. iii, 1867, p. 211 ; 

 Bremond, Lancet, 1870, i, 495. 



8 Chrzonsczewsky, Berlin Klin. Wochenshrift, 1870. 



9 Medical Communications, vol. ii, p. 130. 



