286 PERSPIRATION. 



abraded. So numerous are its absorbents, that, when successfully 

 injected with mercury, the whole surface looks like a sheet of 

 silver. P Secondly, we have many facts which prove absorption 

 without these circumstances, either by the skin or lungs, or both, 

 while no reason can be given why they should be attributed 

 solely to the lungs. A boy at Newmarket, who had been greatly 

 reduced before a race, was found to have gained 30 oz. in weight 

 during an hour, in which time he had only half a glass of wine.q 

 Dr. Home, after being fatigued and going to bed supperless, 

 gained 2 oz. in weight before seven in the morning.^ In three 

 diabetic patients of Dr. Bardsley's, the amount of the urine ex- 

 ceeded that of the ingesta, and the body even increased in weight, 

 and in one of the instances as much as l?lbs. r Dr. Currie 

 allows that, in his patient, " The egesta exceeded the ingesta in a 

 proportion much greater than the waste of his body will explain ; 

 and, indeed, such facts occur every day." The same patient's 

 urine, too, after the daily use of the bath, flowed more abundantly 

 and became less pungent. Keill says that he one night gained 18 

 oz. in his sleep : and Lining, that, after drinking some punch one 

 cool day, " the quantity of humid particles attracted by his skin 

 exceeded the quantity perspired in these two hours and a half 

 by 8^ oz.," and gives two more such instances in the same table. 8 

 Dr. Edwards observed similar facts in guinea-pigs. Thirdly, 1 

 we have positive evidence of cutaneous absorption without 

 friction or abrasion, in the case of frogs, toads, nay, in scaly 

 lizards, which will increase in weight by cutaneous absorption, 

 even if only a part of them is immersed in water ; and remark- 

 ably so if previously made to lose much of their moisture by 

 exposure to the air u , although they never surpass the point from 

 which the loss of weight began. v The increase is much greater 

 in water than in the moistest air. * Dr. Beaupre says, that, if a 

 new born puppy is held a quarter of an hour in warm ink, the 

 urine subsequently made is coloured. * 



p Dr. Gordon, Anatomy, p. 234. 



* Bishop Watson, Chemical Essays, vol. iii. p. 1OJ. 



Medical Facts and Experiments. 



Phil. Trans, vol. xlii. p. 496. l 1. c. p. 362. 



Dr. Edwards, 1. c. part iv. ch. xii. v 1. c. p. 101. 



L c. p. 360. 



A Treatise on the Effects and Properties of Cold, by M. Beaupre", M.D., 

 translated, with notes, by Dr. Clendinning. Edin. 1826. p. 56. 



