ETC. 457 



may be recognized by their characteristic reactions in the 

 urine. 



As would naturally be expected, water and substances in 

 solution, when injected into the respiratory passages, are rapid- 

 ly absorbed ; and poisons administered in this way manifest 

 their peculiar effects with great promptness. 1 Experimenters 

 on this subject have shown the facility with which liquids 

 may be absorbed from the lungs and the air-passages, but it 

 must be remembered that the natural conditions are never 

 such as to admit of this action. The normal function of the 

 lungs is to absorb oxygen, and sometimes a little nitrogen 

 from the air ; and the absorption of any thing else by these 

 surfaces is unnatural, and generally deleterious. 



Absorption from Closed Cavities, Reservoirs of Glands, 

 etc. Facts in pathology showing absorption from closed 

 cavities, the areolar tissue, the muscular and nervous tissue, 

 the conjunctiva, and other parts, are sufficiently numerous. 

 In all cases of effusion of serum into the pleural, peritoneal, 

 pericardial, or synovial cavities, in which recovery takes 

 place, the liquid becomes absorbed. It has been shown by 

 experiment that warm water injected into these cavities is 

 disposed of in the same way. In 1683, Dr. "William Mus- 

 grave injected water into the thorax of a greyhound, produ- 

 cing at first considerable disturbance, but in a few days the 

 fluid was removed by absorption, and entire recovery took 

 place. On one occasion, a pound and a half of water was 

 injected into one side of the chest and half a pound into the 

 other. 2 Experiments of this nature have been frequently 



1 Numerous experiments, which it is not necessary to discuss in detail, have 

 been performed, showing the prompt absorption of poisons from the respiratory 

 surfaces. Magendie repeatedly showed this with solutions of nux vomica and 

 other poisons, in his public demonstrations (Phenomenes Physiques de la Vie, 

 Paris, 1842, tome i., p. 31). It has been found by Magendie and others that this 

 is one of the most rapid ways in which poisons in solution can be introduced into 

 the system. 



2 MUSGRAVE, Warm Water injected into the Tliorax of a Bitch. Philosophical 



