PHYSICAL AND LITERARY. 359 



3 The efFedls of the fame quantity of 

 thofe medicines are more fpeedy when 

 poured into the prints vi^, than when ap- 

 plied to the found Ikin, agreeable to the 

 common dodlrine. Yet, 



4. 1 HE reafon given for it, viz. that the 

 prima: via are more lucculent and fenfible, 

 is extremely fallacious ; for, although the 

 great guts can, without diforder, bear 

 fome things which are very ofFenfive to 

 the flomach; yet opium and probably 

 many other medicines, affecfl frogs by the 

 anus, fooner and perhaps more than by 

 the mouth. And an injedlion into the 

 cavity of the abdomen, or, to fpeak more 

 accurately, into the cavity of the perito- 

 neum, which is very denfe. and is faid to 

 be infenfible of cutting, laceration, and 

 erofion, afFtdls an animal much more 

 quickly, and with greater violence, than 

 when poured into the prim.e vite. 



Hence theeffedls of medicines are not 

 in all cafes proportioned to the general de- 

 gree of fenfibility of the organs to which 

 they are applied, nor to their laxity or num- 



. ber 



