454: , ABSORPTION. 



that sometimes there was a very slight diminution in weight 

 and sometimes a very slight increase. By comparative ob- 

 servations, however, he found that the diminution of weight 

 in the bath was always less than the amount lost by the 

 same subject in the air. Dr. "Willemin employed a very 

 delicate apparatus for weighing, and his observations were 

 apparently conducted with great care. He also confirmed 

 the statement of "W. F. Edwards and others, that transpiration 

 from the general surface goes on in a bath. This he showed 

 by differences in the composition of the bath before and 

 after immersion of the body. These observations do much 

 to reconcile the contradictory experiments of others, in some 

 of which a diminution in weight was observed, while in 

 some an increase was noted. 1 In studying this subject, it 

 must always be remembered that there is a constant loss 

 of weight by evaporation from the general surface and from 

 the lungs ; a fact which was not taken into account by some 

 of the earlier experimenters. 



It has been frequently remarked that the sensation of 

 thirst is always least pressing in a moist atmosphere, and 

 that it may be appeased to a certain extent by baths. It is 

 true that, in a moist atmosphere, the cutaneous exhalations 

 are diminished, and this might account for the maintenance 

 of the normal proportion of fluids in the body with a less 

 amount of drink than ordinary; but we could hardly ac- 

 count for an actual alleviation of thirst by immersion of the 

 body in water, unless we assumed that a certain quantity of 

 water had been absorbed. A striking example of relief of 

 thirst in this way is given by Captain Kennedy, in the narra- 

 tive of his sufferings after shipwreck, when he and his men 



1 WILLEMIN, Recherches Experimentales sur V Absorption par le Tegument 

 externe de VEau ft des Substances solubles. Archives Generales de Medecine, 

 Paris, 1863, 6me serie, tome ii., pp. 5, 177, 313 ; and Nouvelles Recherches sur 

 V Absorption Cutanee, Id., 1864, tome iii., p. 513. In the first article, Dr. Wil- 

 lemin gives an admirable historical review of the experiments on cutaneous 

 absorption. The last article contains a great number of original observations, 

 and the conclusions. 



