Volume 2

The collected papers of Sir W. Bowman, Bart., F.R.S / edited for the committee of the "Bowman Testimonial Fund" by J. Burdon-Sanderson and J. W. Hulke.

  • Bowman, William, Sir, 1816-1892.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The collected papers of Sir W. Bowman, Bart., F.R.S / edited for the committee of the "Bowman Testimonial Fund" by J. Burdon-Sanderson and J. W. Hulke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    94/476
    to breathe pure air from without. In the course of half-an-hour his breath became tainted by the products of putrefaction : thus proving an absorption through the skin. It is a fact commonly remarked, that the peculiar odour of the subject will speedily return to the hands, after it has been once effectually removed by washing, which seems scarcely to allow of any other explanation than this : for it reappears at those parts in particular which have been covered with the offensive particles. I have often thought this a very interesting phenomenon, as it seems to show, either that morbid matter is retained for some period in the textures through which it passes to enter the system, or that such textures become in some manner peculiarly active in its elimination. Another proof of the actual absorption of deleterious gases and morbific matter under ordinary circumstances, consists in the frequency with which the liberation of offensive flatus in the stomach and intestinal tube is remarked to follow a morning's dissecting. Many have observed the identity in smell of this flatus with the gases emitted by animal putridity. The fluid secretions of the mouth are not unusually tainted in a similar manner, and I heard a gentleman remark the other day that he had specially recognised a taste under these circumstances, which he could clearly perceive to be analogous to the smell of the dissecting - room. The following case is curious:—A gentleman, after diligent attendance in a dissecting theatre during the greater part of the day, went home into the country. He there found so strong an odour clinging to him, or rather issuing from his body, and he felt so poorly that he took the trouble of changing every article of dress, even to his flannel waistcoat, and underwent a thorough washing with warm water. He still, however, was drowsy, listless, and indisposed, and in a very short time the same peculiatveffluvia became again perceptible, and drove him summarily from the drawing room. He perspired freely that night, and was glad to find himself next morning well and sweet. There is no reason to doubt that those mucous membranes to which the gases floating in the atmosphere gain access absorb them readily; and as there is here no cuticle to obstruct their ingress, the process will be rapid. The pulmonary mucous surface will be of course the most important of these, but that of the eyes and nose will take a share. It is very common for the eyes to smart when exposed to the effluvia of a bad subject. It is very likely, also, that some absorption may be effected by the mucous membrane of the stomach, from air carried down by deglutition, as Majendie has observed commonly to occur. The facts that have been advanced tend to prove that the morbid agencies in question undergo no very great modification even of their sensible properties by entering or traversing the system ; that they are carried into the circulation, and thereby diffused through every part, that they are usually eliminated (if the powers are equal to it) in much the same state as they entered the body; and that the chief organs by which their injection is accomplished are the skin and the gastro- pulmonary mucous membrane.