TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY 363 



or diminish their irritation of the stomach or intestines. Upon this 

 action rests the utility of mucilages (decoctions of salep, marsh- 

 mallow and gum arabic), of talcum, etc., in diarrheas as well as the 

 addition of gelatin and vegetable mucilages to acid foods and fruit 

 juices. In cases of poisoning with acids, alkalis or caustic salts, 

 we are accustomed to employ as our most important antidotes, milk, 

 egg albumen, gruel (oatmeal gruel, quince mucilage or gum arabic) 

 or emulsions of fat and of oil. Gastric hypersecretion also is favor- 

 ably influenced by such substances (mucilage of gums, starches, 

 bismuth subnitrate, talcum, etc.). TAPPEINEE demonstrated the 

 protective action of such substances by the following experiment: 

 A " reflex frog" which is suspended with the hind legs in an acid 

 solution withdraws the legs after a few seconds. If a solution with 

 the identical amount of acid also contains gelatin, gum arabic, starch 

 paste or the like, there will be no reflex movements. The action 

 of adsorbents in protecting against other poisons has long been known. 



In 1830, the apothecary THOUERY, experimenting on himself, took 

 without harm 1 gm. of strychnine (ten times the fatal dose) with 

 15 gms. of charcoal. The use of charcoal as an antidote against 

 poisoning though neglected in practice has been mentioned in several 

 textbooks. Only freshly precipitated iron hydroxid (ferric hydroxid 

 in water, antidotum arsenici) is in general use as an antidote for 

 arsenic poisoning, thanks to the authority of BUNSEN. From the 

 earliest times greater usefulness has been accorded to the hydrophile 

 colloids as gruel (against aloes, cantharides, colchicum, croton oil), 

 milk or white of eggs against mercury weed, glue solution against alum. 



Scientifically exact study of the adsorptive action of suspensions 

 on poisons was undertaken only in recent years. W. MECHOWSKI, 

 ABLER, E. ZUNZ and L. LICHTWITZ have contributed valuable re- 

 searches on the adsorption of poisons (phenol, strychnine and various 

 poisons, arachnolysin) by animal charcoal which proved to be in some 

 ways equivalent to kaolin (bolus alba), silicic acid, chalk, diatoma- 

 ceous earth and bismuth subnitrate. In practical toxicology the 

 results did not meet expectations. Consequently, as a matter of 

 course, colloidal carbon was tested. SABBATANI actually inhibited 

 the toxic action of strychnine intravenously by injecting simulta- 

 neously 6 times the quantity of colloidal carbon. 



Adsorption Therapy. 



The happy results from adsorption of acids and poisons by char- 

 coal, clay, etc., led to their use even when the acids and poisons 

 arose in the body itself. "Adsorption therapy," so-called by LICHT- 

 WITZ, was accordingly introduced as a therapeutic procedure. It 



