288 Magendie on Absorption. 
PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICAL CHEMISTRY. 
es aaa 
Extract of a letter to the Editor, from ate. Isaac Doolittle, 
dated Paris, Nov. 9, 1 
a mrt s Memoir on absorption has excited con- 
sensation among the faculty here; he has been so 
g as to confide to me his manuscript, from which I 
have made the acco mpanying translation, for your Journal. 
Dr. Magendie has looked over my translation, and found it | 
correct. 
Art. [X.—Memoir on the Mechanism of absorption in An- 
_ tmals of red and warm blood; by F. Macennix, of Paris. 
Read before the peadessy of a at Paris, on the 9th October, 1820. 
fe s-nereumiaivesheend French, of the author’s manuscript; by I. Doolittle. 
 Wuenever any substance, whether liquid, gazeous, or 
in a state of vapour, is kept for a space of time in immedi- 
ate contact either with an external or internal surface of our 
bodies, that substance is absorbed; or, in other words, it 
passes into the sanguiferous vessels, mixes and circulates 
with the blood, wa epodyees thus on our organs, attntey el- 
ther salutary or 
This Physiological heck sesapetaly remarkable in the 
action of poisons: a single drop of hydro-cyanic (Prussic) 
acid, placed on the tongue of a dog, causes death i ina few 
seconds, by being carried to the brain with the blood. 
have often produced effects equally prompt, by the a plica- 
tion of substances reputed much less powerful than Davie 
acid, by simply taking care to increase proportionally the 
5 sch of the absorption. 
A result of this nature was well calculated to excite, curi- 
our. inks, o 
ome u , pig sions f+. L 1 We 
"contract, by means of absorption, man: many diseases some of 
which are even, dangerous. Ina word, our nee "existence 
_'8'so closely connected with this | that were it 
to cease for a moment, death would be ae almost immedi- 
ate consequence. 
