An inquiry into the physiological and medicinal properties of the Aconitum Napellus : to which are added observations on several other species of aconitum / by Alexander Fleming.

  • Fleming, Alexander, 1824-1875.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the physiological and medicinal properties of the Aconitum Napellus : to which are added observations on several other species of aconitum / by Alexander Fleming. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    little lardj introduced into the stomach of a rahbit, pro- duced no effect whateyer. This peculiarity may have arisen either from a power of selection on the part of the mucous membrane, whereby it refused to absorb the poison, or from a peculiar property possessed by the gastric juice, by which the poison was neutralized. That the latter hypothesis affords the true explanation of the phenomenon, is proyed by two experiments. In one of these (Experiment 19), a quarter of a grain of Aconitina mixed with lard was introduced into the rectum of a rabbit, and speedily proved fatal, shewing that had the first view been correct, and that the stomach and intestines had refused to absorb the Aconitina, it would, in all likelihood, have been taken up on its arrival at the rectum. Again, that no such power of selection is pos- sessed by the stomach of the rabbit, was shewn by Experiment 11, where a quarter of a grain of Aconitina, dissolved in diluted muriatic acid, proved quickly fatal. In this case, speedy absorption, favoured by the fluid form of the poison, took place. In those instances, on the other hand, where the drug was administered in the solid form, absorption could not go on for some time; before which it seems highly probable that the gastric juice interfered, and, by the peculiar property it ap- pears to possess, neutralized the poison. This view is further confirmed by Experiments 16, 17, and 18, in which the Aconitina, after having been