74 Notes from the Physiological Laboratory 



of commercial vaseline, in addition to my regular 

 diet. Digestion was in nowise altered, and no ap- 

 preciable results ensued. Later, two healthy adults 

 each received, in the course of forty-eight hours, one 

 ounce of vaseline. Their alvine dejections for three 

 days from the beginning of this observation were 

 collected and dried, and, at the suggestion of Dr. 

 John Marshall, of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 extracted with petroleum ether. Making a slight 

 allowance for incompleteness in extraction, the vase- 

 line ingested was, in each case, recovered in its to- 

 tality, showing* that it had passed through the econ- 

 omy unchanged and unabsorbed. 



There are some important medical applications of 

 these facts, the discussion of which would be out of 

 place here, and which I reserve for further experi- 

 ment; 1 but the following deductions appear permis- 

 sible, and are of strictly biological interest : 



I. Pure petrolatum, while entirely unirritating to 

 the digestive tract, is valueless as a food-stuff. 



II. The results of the experiments here described 

 lend support to the theory that oleaginous matters 



1 The chief medical use of these facts lies in the adminis- 

 tration of vaseline as a bland emollient to the intestinal sur- 

 face. I have in several individuals succeeded in checking 

 diarrhoeas of irritation by this simple means. 



