254 IRON SALTS PARTIALLY AND SLOWLY ABSORBED 



the medicine being absorbed, and directly furnishing iron to 

 the haemoglobin, restoring its deficiency, and aiding the 

 formation of red blood corpuscles from leucocytes. 



A prolonged controversy has waged on the question of the 

 absorption of iron salts, and although clinical experience of 

 the remarkable value of iron in cases of ansemia, especially 

 chlorosis, warranted the assumption that the iron given was 

 absorbed and supplied iron to the blood, yet many author- 

 ities have denied that the drug was absorbed at all. Bunge 

 notably was of this opinion, and he affirmed that the bene- 

 ficial action of inorganic iron in any of its salts was simply to 

 remove from the alimentary tract, by combination and 

 precipitation, the excess of alkaline sulphides there as a 

 result of dyspepsia. He believed that these sulphides 

 united with and precipitated the organic iron contained in 

 food which would normally have been absorbed and would 

 have supplied the necessary iron to the blood. Thus on 

 this theory inorganic iron was only useful by making it 

 possible for organic food iron to be absorbed. This theory 

 has now been given up, by its author among others, and it 

 can be definitely stated that a small part of the inorganic 

 iron given by the mouth is absorbed. Iron salts are con- 

 verted into the chloride in the stomach and then into the 

 albuminate. As the latter it is absorbed in the duodenum 

 and carried to the spleen and liver in which organs it is 

 stored. It appears probable that this iron stimulates the 

 blood-forming tissues, such as the red marrow, and it 

 supplies the needs of the blood and other tissues whilst the 

 excess is excreted chiefly by the mucous membrane of the 

 large intestine. 



Neither ferrous nor ferric salts dissolve or pass through 

 the epidermis. Both, except the albuminate of iron, 

 coagulate albumin, and exert astringent effects on mucous 

 and denuded skin surfaces, and also coagulate blood. 

 Soluble iron salts, which do not coagulate albumin, such as 

 the albuminate or double tart rate of iron and sodium, when 

 injected into the circulation produce metallic poisoning, 

 characterised by muscular and nervous depression, dys- 

 pnoeic breathing, vomiting, cardiac weakness, and gastro- 

 intestinal, and to a less extent, renal inflammation. But 



