Volume 5

The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira].

  • Pereira, Jonathan, 1804-1853.
Date:
1839-1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be detected in the chyle, but some were found in the blood and urine. The odorous substances used were—camphor, musk, spirits of wine, oil of turpentine, Dippel’s oil, asafoetida, and garlic: they were for the most part detected in the blood and urine, but none were found in the chyle. The saline substances tried were—acetate of lead, acetate and cyanuret of mercury, chloruret and sulphate of iron, chloruret of barium, and ferro- cyanuret and sulpho-cyanuret of potassium. A few of these were detected in the chyle, and most of them in the venous blood and urine. From these experiments we may conclude, that although saline substances occasionally pass into the chyle, odorous and colouring matters do not ; all the three classes of substances, however, are found in the venous blood. These results, observe Tiedemann and Gmelin, are opposed to those of Lister, Musgrave, J. Hunter, Haller, Viridet, and Mattei, but agree with those of Hallé, Dumas, Magendie, and Flandrin. b. Magendie’s experiment.—Magendie and Delille (Elem.Comp. Physiol.) performed a striking experiment, with the view of settling, if possible, the question of venous or lymphatic absorption of medicines and poisons. They divided all the parts of one of the posterior extremities of a dog, except the artery and vein, the former being left entire, for the purpose of preserv- ing the life of the hmb. A’portion of the Upas Tieutée was then applied of the poison were evident, and in ten minutes death took place. To the «inferences drawn from this experiment, however, several objections have “ operation, has been said to vitiate the whole of the experiment; secondly, The first two of these objections have been obviated. In a second expe- riment, Magendie severed the artery and the vein, and reconnected them by quills, so as to preclude the possibility of absorption taking place by the lymphatics of these vessels: the effects were the same. Some years. since I assisted my friend Mr. Lloyd, assistant-surgeon of St. Bartholo- mew’s Hospital, in performing an analogous experiment, using Strychnia instead of Upas Tieuté, and without administering opium: death took c. Lacteals tied: effects of poisons still produced.—Magendie says that d. Blood-vessels tied: poisons do not act.—Segalas tied the veins of a ’ portion of intestine, and applied poison, but no effects were produced.. e. Rapidity of absorption —Mayer found that ferrocyanuret of potas- sium could be detected in the blood, in from two to five minutes after its injection into the lungs. ‘The rapidity with which this salt enters the blood, says Muller, is too great for it to be explained by means of the slow circulation of the lymph. These circumstances appear to me to establish the fact of venous absorption.