Magendie on Absorption. 295 



fourth minute the effects which I anticipated began to mani- 

 fest themselves, feebly at first, but afterwards with so much 

 activity that I was obliged to have recourse to pulmonary in^ 

 flation to prevent the death of the animal. 



I intended to repeat this experiment, but I was unable to 

 procure any other than a full grown dog, much larger than 

 the former ; the coats of his veins were consequently much 

 thicker. The same effects were produced, but, as might 

 have been expected, their appearance was much more tar- 

 dy ; and they were developed only after the tenth minute. 



Satisfied with this result as to the veins, I was desirous of 

 ascertaining whether the arteries possessed analogous prop- 

 erties. Yet the arteries are not, in the living animal, in the 

 same physical condition as the veins ; their texture is less 

 spongy and offers more consistence ; their tubes are much 

 thicker in proportion to their diameter, and they are, more- 

 over, constantly distended by the blood thrust forward from 

 the heart. It was, therefore, easy to foresee that, if the phe- 

 nomenon of absorption did really take place in the arteries, 

 the effects would become visible much later than in the 

 veins; this belief was fully confirmed by experience in the 

 case of two large rabbits; after having stripped with the 

 greatest care, one of the carotids in each of them, it was 

 more than a quarter of an hour before the solution of mix 

 vomica could traverse the sides of the artery. 



Although I ceased to wet the artery as soon as the effects 

 became visible, one of the rabbits died. And, to assure 

 myself that the poison had really traversed the coats (pa- 

 rois) of the artery, and that it had not been absoi'bed by the 

 small veins which might have escaped my dissection,! care- 

 fully detached the vessel which had served for the experi- 

 ment, and opened it throughout its whole length ; the per- 

 sons who were present tasted with me the small portion of 

 blood which remained adhering to the interior surface of the 

 artery, and we all found in it the extreme bitterness of the 

 extract of the nux vomica. 



Absorption by the large vessels was, therefore, well as- 

 certained to exist, as well during life as after death. It re- 

 mained only to furnish direct proof thdt the smaller vessels 

 possessed the same faculty ; their multiplicity, their ex- 

 treme tenuity, their thinness and the great extent of theii 

 coats, were so many conditions which would tend to favour 

 the production of the phenomenon. 



