Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/24

 *tained that many poisons act through the medium of absorption into the blood.

Poisons are believed to act through the blood for the following reasons. First, they disappear during life from the shut cavities or other situations into which they have been introduced; that is, they are absorbed. Several clear examples to this effect have been related by Dr. Coindet and myself in our paper on oxalic acid. In one experiment four ounces of a solution of oxalic acid were injected into the peritoneal sac of a cat, and killed it in fourteen minutes; yet, on opening the animal, although none of the fluid had escaped by the wound, we found scarcely a drachm remaining. In recent times Professor Orfila has proved that various poisons, such as arsenic, tartar-emetic, and acetate of lead, disappear in part or wholly from wounds into which they had been introduced. Next, many poisons act with unimpaired rapidity, when the nerves supplying the part to which they are applied have been previously divided, or even when the part is attached to the body by arteries and veins only. Dr. Monro, secundus, proved this in regard to opium; and the same fact has been since extended by Sir B. Brodie and Professor Emmert to wourali, by Magendie to nux vomica, by Coullon to hydrocyanic acid, by Charret to opium, and by Dr. Coindet and myself to diluted oxalic acid. Magendie's experiment was the most precise of all: for, besides the communication with the poisoned part being kept up by a vein and an artery only, these vessels were also severed and reconnected by two quills. Farther, many poisons will not act when they are applied to a part of which the circulation has been arrested, even although all its other connections with the body have been left entire. This has been shown distinctly by Emmert in regard to the hydrocyanic acid; which, when introduced into the hind-leg of an animal after the abdominal aorta has been tied, produces no effect till the ligature be removed, but then acts with rapidity. An experiment of a similar nature performed by Mr. Blake with the wourali poison yielded the same result. Again, many poisons act with a force proportional to the absorbing power of the texture with which they are placed in contact. This is the criterion which has been commonly resorted to for discovering whether a poison acts through the medium of the blood. It is applicable, however, only when the poison acts sensibly in small doses; for those which act but in large doses cannot be applied in the same space of time over equal surfaces of different textures. The difference in the absorbing power of the different tissues has been well ascer-*