99 
ABSORPTION OP MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES. 
certain affections of the neck of the bladder, or of -the 
prostate, and certain neuralgic affections. 7. It forms, with 
the greatest facility, most important pharmaceutic prepara- 
tions. — Arch . Gen . de Med . 
ON THE ABSORPTION OE MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES BY THE 
LARGE INTESTINE. 
By M. Briquet. 
The object of M. Briquet’s two memoirs is the study of 
the absorption of medicinal substances introduced into the 
large intestine by means of clysters. The following are the 
general conclusions he has arrived at. 
1. The fluid constituting the injection may easily reach as 
far as the coecum, and consequently may be brought into 
contact with a very large extent of absorbing surface. 2. 
The mucous membrane and the fluids that bathe its surface 
do not exert any chemical action upon the substances so 
introduced into the large intestine, where all that is absorbed 
is that which was previously in a state of solution. 3. When 
a clyster of the soluble salts of quinine, in doses less than 15 
grains, is administered, rather more than a third of the 
quantity so administered is eliminated, and has consequently 
been absorbed. 4. When larger doses are administered, they 
are ill-supported, and only a fifth or a sixth of the quantity 
is absorbed. 5. In whatever dose the quinine may have been 
given, it generally gives rise to cerebral S}^mptoms only very 
slowly and to a slight degree. 6. Traces of elimination, and 
consequently of absortion, are only met with an hour after 
the administration of a clyster, and even then the elimination 
is inconsiderable. 7. The duration of the elimination is 
usually short — two or three days at the utmost. 8. The 
greater or less dilution, within certain limits, the more or 
less viscous nature of the liquid, or the addition of the salts 
of morphia to the cinchona alkaloids do not exert any 
sensible modification on the absorption. 9- Absorption 
takes place more readily in the jmung than in the adult; and 
is performed with difficulty in the aged of either sex. 10. 
The salts of quinine, administered in clysters in doses of 
less than 15 grains, exert the same effect as when given in 
moderate doses by the mouth, and may be very well substi- 
tuted for these, 11. But this is not the case with large 
doses, which are never absorbed in sufficient quantities to 
