472 ABSORPTION. 



to make experiments upon endosmosis which attracted 

 the attention of scientific men in different parts of the 

 world and were immediately repeated and extended; but 

 the experiments made upon living animals by Lebkiichner, 

 in 1819, and by Magendie, in 1820, had already demon- 

 strated most conclusively the passage of liquids through the 

 walls of the blood-vessels ; and the explanation offered by 

 these physiologists was fully as definite as that proposed 

 by Dutrochet. 



In the experiments of Lebkiichner, it was conclusively 

 shown that solutions readily passed through- many ani- 

 mal membranes, especially the walls of the blood-vessels. 

 He found that prussiate of potash, placed in contact with 

 the jugular vein of a living rabbit for ten minutes, pene- 

 trated into the blood, so that the characteristic reactions with 

 the sulphate of iron were manifested in the serum of the 

 arterial blood and the blood from the jugular upon the oppo- 

 site side. The same result followed other experiments of the 

 same kind, and experiments with emetic, prussic acid, etc. 1 



In the experiments of Magendie, this observer, refusing 

 to recognize the existence of absorbing openings, either in 

 the lacteals or the venous radicles, showed that when a por- 

 tion of the jugular vein was plunged into acidulated water, 

 and was so arranged that none of the fluid could enter ex- 

 cept through its walls, pure water, when passed in a stream 

 through the vessel, became sensibly acid in from five to six 

 minutes. Another experiment was even more interesting. 

 He exposed in a young dog the jugular vein for its whole 

 length, placed it upon a card, and let fall drop by drop upon 

 its surface a solution of nux vomica, taking care that the 

 poison touched nothing but the card and the vein, and that 

 the course of the blood in the vessel was not interrupted. 

 The effects of the poison were developed in this animal in four 



J LEBKUCHNER, Dissertation inaugurate sur la Permeabilite des Tissus vivans, 

 Tubingue, 1819. (Extrait.) Archives Generates de Mededne, Paris, 1825, tome 

 vii., p. 439. 



