282 A MANUAL OF VETERINARY PHYSIOLOGY 



putrid organic infusions, or at any rate these do not appear to 

 produce any local irritation when injected. 



Absorption from the Cellular Tissue is very active, and both 

 the bloodvessels and lymphatics take part in the process ; 

 ferrocyanide of potassium injected into the face has been detected 

 in a carotid lymphatic in seven minutes. The rapidity of cellular 

 tissue absorption is hastened by muscular movement. 



Absorption from the Conjunctiva is very pronounced for some 

 drugs, such as atropine and certain organic poisons, but there are 

 others which are not absorbed so readily. Curare is not absorbed 

 through the conjunctiva, and Colin could not infect horses with 

 anthrax by placing anthrax blood and fluids in the conjunctival 

 sac. 



Absorption by the Skin, if the surface be unbroken, is as a rule 

 slow even for those drugs which will pass through it, while there 

 are many organic and inorganic substances which refuse to pass 

 through the unbroken epidermis. Colin kept the lumbar region 

 of a horse wet for five hours with a solution of ferrocyanide of 

 potassium ; the salt was detected in the urine in four and a half 

 hours, although the skin was quite unbroken. In the dog 

 absorption from the skin of such drugs as carbolic acid is rapid 

 and frequently fatal, even in a very diluted form. From a 

 wound or abraded surface, absorption will occur rapidly with 

 some agents, slowly with others. Colin placed a horse's foot 

 with a wound on the coronet in a solution of ferrocyanide of 

 potassium ; in twenty minutes he detected the salt in a lymphatic 

 of the thigh. In connection with absorption from a wounded 

 surface, he found that the poison was taken up quite as readily 

 by the lymphatics as by the bloodvessels. The mucous mem- 

 brane of the vagina was found by experiment to absorb very 

 slowly. 



Experiments made on Absorption from the Pleural and Peri- 

 toneal Cavities showed that such drugs as strychnine rapidly 

 produce fatal symptoms when injected into these sacs ; even in 

 such a short time as from three to seven minutes tetanic 

 symptoms supervene. Potassium iodide injected into the peri- 

 toneal cavity of a sheep may be detected in the thoracic duct five 

 to eight minutes after the operation. Starling and Tubby have 

 shown, however, that the active agents in absorption from these 

 sacs are the bloodvessels, and that the share taken by the 

 lymphatics is insignificant ; for if methylene blue be injectjed into 

 the pleural cavity the dye appears in the urine long before any 

 trace of colour can be perceived in the lymph flowing from the 

 thoracic duct. 



Stomach Absorption, or, rather, its absence in herbivora, has 

 been dealt with at p. 201. Even in the dog it is now admitted 



