An experimental essay on cutaneous absorption : published as an inaugural dissertation : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Andrews ..., the Trustees, and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the 5th day of June, 1805, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Henry P. Daingerfield.

  • Daingerfield, Henry Powen.
Date:
1805
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental essay on cutaneous absorption : published as an inaugural dissertation : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Andrews ..., the Trustees, and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the 5th day of June, 1805, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Henry P. Daingerfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    answered by this indispensable agent in the production of saliva- tion by means of mercurial ointment, I was anxious to devise some remedy for this probable deficiency. For this purpose, it was recommended to apply strongly stimulating substances to my feet, which, at the same time that they excited the absorbents, would not impair the cuticle. With this view, having pouted some boiling water on a quantity of bruised mustard seed, I im- mersed my feet in the infusion, until the irritation became so great as to be almost unsupportable, when they were taken out, and the socks, with the same quantity of unguentum hydrargyri fortius used in the former experiment, were again applied. This done, I immediately set out on a long walk, that the mercury might be rubbed into my feet, and the stimulus of the bath be thus co-operated with by that of friction. The socks were worn a week; but, as at the end of that time no appearance*of mercu- rial affection was to be discovered, they were taken off, and the experiment regarded as complete. I am well aware, that this experiment may be conceived by some to militate against my explanation of the modus operandi of mercurial frictions; since it may be asked, if they produce their effects in consequence of a sympathy between the skin and salivary glands, why this sympathy was not excited in my expe- riments with the mercurial socks ? The answer to this question is, I think, extremely obvious: for the feet are so far removed from the centre of circulation, and so far from the salivary glands, that it could not be expected they would be readily brought into sympathy with each other. Hence ptyalism was not produced ; and for the analogical reason that children under a certain age cannot be salivated, because those two sets of vessels (the stomach and salivary glands) have not acted long enough together for their motions to become associated*. * See Dr. Young's Inaugural Dissertation.