688 ABSORPTION. 



ounces in weight in the interval, although he had only taken half a glass 

 of wine. Dr. Carpenter 1 gives a parallel case, which was related to him 

 by Sir G. Hill, Governor of St. Vincent. A jockey had been for some 

 time in training for a race in which Sir G. Hill was much interested, 

 and had been reduced to the proper weight. On the morning of the 

 race, suffering much from thirst, he took one cup of tea, and shortly 

 afterwards his weight was found to have increased six pounds, so that 

 he was incapacitated for riding. These cases certainly appear difficult 

 of belief: yet the authority is good. Dr. Carpenter presumes, that 

 nearly the whole of the increase in Bishop Watson's case, and at least 

 three fourths of it in Sir G. Hill's case, must be attributed to cutaneous 

 absorption, which was probably stimulated by the wine that was taken 

 in the one, and by the tea in the other. Bichat was under the im- 

 pression, that, in this way he imbibed the tainted air of the dissecting 

 room, in which he passed a large portion of his time. To avoid an 

 objection, that might be urged against this idea, that the miasmata 

 might have been absorbed by the air passages, he so contrived his 

 experiment, as, by means of a long tube, to breathe the fresh outer air; 

 when he found, that the evidence, which consisted in the alvine evacu- 

 ations having the smell of the miasmata of the dissecting-room, con- 

 tinued. It is obvious, however, that such an experiment would hardly 

 admit of satisfactory execution, and it is even doubtful, whether there 

 was any actual relation between the assigned effect and the cause. 

 The testimony of MM. Andral, Boyer, Dume'ril, Dupuytren, Serres, 

 Lallemand, Ribes, Lawrence, Parent-Duchatelet, and that afforded by 

 the author's own observation, are by no means favourable to the great 

 unwholesomeness of cadaveric exhalations. 2 



Dr. J. Bradner Stuart 3 found, after bathing in infusions of madder, 

 rhubarb, and turmeric, that the urine was tinged with these substances. 

 A garlic plaster affected the breath, when every care was taken, by 

 breathing through a tube connected with the exterior of the apartment, 

 that the odour should not be received into the lungs. Dr. Thomas 

 Sewall 4 found the urine coloured, after bathing the feet in infusion of 

 madder, and the hands in infusions of madder and rhubarb. Dr. 

 Mussey 5 proved, that if the body be immersed in a decoction of mad- 

 der, the substance may be detected in the urine, by using an appro- 

 priate test. Dr. Barton found, that frogs, confined in dry glass ves- 

 sels, became enfeebled, diminished in size, and unable to leap; but that, 

 on the introduction of a small quantity of water, they soon acquired 

 their wonted vigour, became plump, and as lively as usual in their 

 motions. 6 M. W. F. Edwards 7 of Paris, is, also, in favour of absorp- 

 tion being carried on by the skin to a considerable extent. 



1 Human Physiology, 462, Lond., 1842. 



2 Parent-Duchatelet, Hygiene Publique, Paris, 1836; and the remarks of the author in his 

 Human Health, p. 77, Philad., 1844. 



a New York Med. Repos., vols. i. and iii. 1810-11. 



4 Med. and Physical Journ., xxxi. 80, Lond., 1814. 



5 Philad. Medical and Physical Journal, i. 288, Philad., 1808. 



6 Klapp, Inaugural Essay on Cuticular Absorption, p. 30, Philad., 1805. 



7 Sur I'lnfluence des Agens Physiques; or Drs. Hodgkin and Fisher's translation, p. 61, 

 and p. 187, &c., Lond., 1832. 



