# Zoonomia/III.IV

Art. IV.
SORBENTIA.
I. Those things which increase the irritative motions, which constitute absorption, are termed sorbentia; and are as various as the absorbent vessels, which they stimulate into action.
1. Cutaneous absorption is increased by austere acids, as of vitriol; hence they are believed to check colliquative sweats, and to check the eruption of small-pox, and contribute to the cure of the itch, and tinea; hence they thicken the saliva in the mouth, as lemon-juice, crab-juice, sloes.
2. Absorption from the mucous membrane is increased by opium, and Peruvian bark, internally; and by blue vitriol externally. Hence the expectoration in coughs, and the mucous discharge from the urethra, are thickened and lessened.
3. Absorption from the cellular membrane is promoted by bitter vegetables, and by emetics, and cathartics. Hence matter is thickened and lessened in ulcers by opium and Peruvian bark; and serum is absorbed in anasarca by the operation of emetics and cathartics.
4. Venous absorption is increased by acrid vegetables; as water-cress, cellery, horse-radish, mustard. Hence their use in sea-scurvy, the vibices of which are owing to a defect of venous absorption; and by external stimulants, as vinegar, and by electricity, and perhaps by oxygen.
5. Intestinal absorption is increased by astringent vegetables, as rhubarb, galls; and by earthy salts, as alum; and by argillaceous and calcareous earth.
6. Hepatic absorption is increased by metallic salts, hence calomel and sal martis are so efficacious in jaundice, worms, chlorosis, dropsy.
7. Venereal virus in ulcers is absorbed by the stimulus of mercury; hence they heal by the use of this medicine.
8. Venesection, hunger, thirst, and violent evacuations, increase all absorptions; hence sweating produces costiveness.
9. Externally bitter astringent vegetables, earthy and metallic salts, and bandages, promote the absorption of the parts on which they are applied.
10. All these in their usual doses do not increase the natural heat; but they induce costiveness, and deep coloured urine with earthy sediment.
In greater doses they invert the motions of the stomach and lacteals; and hence vomit or purge, as carduus benedictus, rhubarb. They promote perspiration, if the skin be kept warm; as camomile tea, and testaceous powders, have been used as sudorifics.
The preparations of antimony vomit, purge, or sweat, either according to the quantity exhibited, or as a part of what is given is evacuated. Thus a quarter of a grain of emetic tartar (if well prepared) will promote a diaphoresis, if the skin be kept warm; half a grain will procure a stool or two first, and sweating afterwards; and a grain will generally vomit, and then purge, and lastly sweat the patient. In less quantity it is probable, that this medicine acts like other metallic salts, as steel, zinc, or copper in small doses; that is, that it strengthens the system by its stimulus. As camomile or rhubarb in different doses vomit, or purge, or act as stimulants so as to strengthen the system.
II. Observations on the Sorbentia.
I. 1. As there is great difference in the apparent structure of the various glands, and of the fluids which they select from the blood, these glands must possess different kinds of irritability, and are therefore stimulated into stronger or unnatural actions by different articles of the materia medica, as shewn in the secernentia. Now as the absorbent vessels are likewise glands, and drink up or select different fluids, as chyle, water, mucus, with a part of every different secretion, as a part of the bile, a part of the saliva, a part of the urine, &c. it appears, that these absorbent vessels must likewise possess different kinds of irritability, and in consequence must require different articles of the materia medica to excite them into unusual action. This part of the subject has been so little attended to, that the candid reader will find in this article a great deal to excuse.
It was observed, that some of the secernentia did in a less degree increase absorption, from the combination of different properties in the same vegetable body; for the same reason some of the class of sorbentia produce secretion in a less degree, as those bitters which have also an aroma in their composition; these are known from their increasing the heat of the system above its usual degree.
It must also be noted, that the actions of every part of the absorbent system are so associated with each other, that the drugs which stimulate one branch increase the action of the whole; and the torpor or quiescence of one branch weakens the exertions of the whole; or when one branch is excited into stronger action, some other branch has its actions weakened or inverted. Yet though peculiar branches of the absorbent system are stimulated into action by peculiar substances, there are other substances which seem to stimulate the whole system, and that without immediately increasing any of the secretions; as those bitters which possess no aromatic scent, at the head of which stands the famed Peruvian bark, or cinchona.
2. Cutaneous absorption. I have heard of some experiments, in which the body was kept cold, and was thought to absorb more moisture from the atmosphere than at any other time. This however cannot be determined by statical experiments; as the capillary vessels, which secrete the perspirable matter, must at the same time have been benumbed by the cold; and from their inaction there could not have been the usual waste of the weight of the body; and as all other muscular exertions are best performed, when the body possesses its usual degree of warmth, it is conclusive, that the absorbent system should likewise do its office best, when it is not benumbed by external cold.
The austere acids, as of vitriol, lemon-juice, juice of crabs and sloes, strengthen digestion, and prevent that propensity to sweat so usual to weak convalescents, and diminish the colliquative sweats in hectic fevers; all which are owing to their increasing the action of the external and internal cutaneous absorption. Hence vitriolic acid is given in the small-pox to prevent the too hasty or too copious eruption, which it effects, by increasing the cutaneous absorption. Vinegar, from the quantity of alcohol which it contains, exerts a contrary effect to that here described, and belongs to the incitantia; as an ounce of it promotes sweat, and a flushing of the skin; at the same time externally it acts as a venous absorbent, as the lips become pale by moistening them with it. And it is said, when taken internally in great and continued quantity, to induce paleness of the skin, and softness of the bones.
The sweet vegetable acids, as of several ripe fruits, are among the torpentia; as they are less stimulating than the general food of this climate, and are hence used in inflammatory diseases.
Where the quantity of fluids in the system is much lessened, as in hectic fever, which has been of some continuance, or in spurious peripneumony, a grain of opium given at night will sometimes prevent the appearance of sweats; which is owing to the stimulus of opium increasing the actions of the cutaneous absorbents, more than those of the secerning vessels of the skin. Whence the secretion of perspirable matter is not decreased, but its appearance on the skin is prevented by its more facile absorption.
3. There is one kind of itch, which seldom appears between the fingers, is the least infectious, and most difficult to eradicate, and which has its cure much facilitated by the internal use of acid of vitriol. This disease consists of small ulcers in the skin, which are healed by whatever increases the cutaneous absorption. The external application of sulphur, mercury, and acrid vegetables, acts on the same principle; for the animalcula, which are seen in these pustules, are the effect, not the cause, of them; as all other stagnating animal fluids, as the semen itself, abounds with similar microscopic animals.
4. Young children have sometimes an eruption upon the head called Tinea, which discharges an acrimonius ichor inflaming the parts, on which it falls. This eruption I have seen submit to the internal use of vitriolic acid, when only wheat-flour was applied externally. This kind of eruption is likewise frequently cured by testaceous powders; two materials so widely different in their chemical properties, but agreeing in their power of promoting cutaneous absorption.
II. Absorption from the mucous membrane is increased by applying to its surface the austere acids, as of vitriol, lemon-juice, crab-juice, sloes. When these are taken into the mouth, they immediately thicken, and at the same time lessen the quantity of the saliva; which last circumstance cannot be owing to their coagulating the saliva, but to their increasing the absorption of the thinner parts of it. So alum applied to the tip of the tongue does not stop in its action there, but independent of its diffusion it induces cohesion and corrugation over the whole mouth. (Cullen's Mat. Med. Art. Astringentia.) Which is owing to the association of the motions of the parts or branches of the absorbent system with each other.
Absorption from the mucous membrane is increased by opium taken internally in small doses more than by any other medicine, as is seen in its thickening the expectoration in coughs, and the discharge from the nostrils in catarrh, and perhaps the discharge from the urethra in gonorrhoea. The bark seems next in power for all these purposes.
Externally slight solutions of blue vitriol, as two or three grains to an ounce of water, applied to ulcers of the mouth, or to chancres on the glans penis, more powerfully induces them to heal than any other material.
Where the lungs or urethra are inflamed to a considerable degree, and the absorption is so great, that the mucus is already too thick, and adheres to the membrane from its viscidity, opiates and bitter vegetable and austere acids are improper; and mucilaginous diluents should be used in their stead with venesection and torpentia.
III. 1. Absorption from the cellular membrane, and from all the other cavities of the body, is too slowly performed in some constitutions; hence the bloated pale complexion; and when this occurs in its greatest degree, it becomes an universal dropsy. These habits are liable to intermittent fevers, hysteric paroxysms, cold extremities, indigestion, and all the symptoms of debility.
The absorbent system is more subject to torpor or quiescence than the secerning system, both from the coldness of the fluids which are applied to it, as the moisture of the atmosphere, and from the coldness of the fluids which we drink; and also from its being stimulated only by intervals, as when we take our food; whereas the secerning system is perpetually excited into action by the warm circulating blood; as explained in Sect. XXXII.
2. The Peruvian bark, camomile flowers, and other bitter drugs, by stimulating this cellular branch of the absorbent system prevents it from becoming quiescent; hence the cold paroxysms of those agues, which arise from the torpor of the cellular lymphatics, are prevented, and the hot fits in consequence. The patient thence preserves his natural heat, regains his healthy colour, and his accustomed strength.
Where the cold paroxysm of an ague originates in the absorbents of the liver, spleen, or other internal viscus, the addition of steel to vegetable bitters, and especially after the use of one dose of calomel, much advances the cure.
And where it originates in any part of the secerning system, as is probably the case in some kinds of agues, the addition of opium in the dose of a grain and half, given about an hour before the access of the paroxysm, or mixed with chalybeate and bitter medicines, ensures the cure. Or the same may be effected by wine given instead of opium before the paroxysm, so as nearly to intoxicate.
These three kinds of agues are thus distinguished; the first is not attended with any tumid or indurated viscus, which the people call an ague cake, and which is evident to the touch. The second is accompanied with a tumid viscus; and the last has generally, I believe, the quartan type, and is attended with some degree of arterial debility.
3. This class of absorbent medicines are said to decrease irritability. After any part of our system has been torpid or quiescent, by whatever cause that was produced, it becomes afterwards capable of being excited into greater motion by small stimuli; hence the hot fit of fever succeeds the cold one. As these medicines prevent torpor or quiescence of parts of the system, as cold hands or feet, which perpetually happen to weak constitutions, the subsequent increase of irritability of these parts is likewise prevented.
4. These absorbent medicines, including both the bitters, and metallic salts, and opiates, are of great use in the dropsy by their promoting universal absorption; but here evacuations are likewise to be produced, as will be treated of in the Invertentia.
5. The matter in ulcers is thickened, and thence rendered less corrosive, the saline part of it being reabsorbed by the use of bitter medicines; hence the bark is used with advantage in the cure of ulcers.
6. Bitter medicines strengthen digestion by promoting the absorption of chyle; hence the introduction of hop into the potation used at our meals, which as a medicine may be taken advantageously, but, like other unnecessary stimuli, must be injurious as an article of our daily diet.
The hop may perhaps in some degree contribute to the production of gravel in the kidnies, as our intemperate wine-drinkers are more subject to the gout, and ale-drinkers to the gravel; in the formation of both which diseases, there can be no doubt, but that the alcohol is the principal, if not the only agent.
7. Vomits greatly increase the absorption from the cellular membrane, as squill, and foxglove. The squill should be given in the dose of a grain of the dried root every hour, till it operates upwards and downwards. Four ounces of the fresh leaves of the foxglove should be boiled from two pounds of water to one, and half an ounce of the decoction taken every two hours for four or more doses. This medicine by stimulating into inverted action the absorbents of the stomach, increases the direct action of the cellular lymphatics.
Another more convenient way of ascertaining the dose of foxglove is by making a saturated tincture of it in proof spirit; which has the twofold advantage of being invariable in its original strength, and of keeping a long time as a shop-medicine without losing any of its virtue. Put two ounces of the leaves of purple foxglove, digitalis purpurea, nicely dried, and coarsely powdered, into a mixture of four ounces of rectified spirit of wine and four ounces of water; let the mixture stand by the fire-side twenty-four hours frequently shaking the bottle, and thus making a saturated tincture of digitalis; which must be poured from the sediment or passed through filtering paper.
As the size of a drop is greater or less according to the size of the rim of the phial from which it is dropped, a part of this saturated tincture is then directed to be put into a two-ounce phial, for the purpose of ascertaining the size of the drop. Thirty drops of this tincture is directed to be put into an ounce of mint-water for a draught to be taken twice or thrice a day, till it reduces the anasarca of the limbs, or removes the difficulty of breathing in hydrothorax, or till it induces sickness. And if these do not occur in two or three days, the dose must be gradually increased to forty or sixty drops, or further.
From the great stimulus of this medicine the stomach is rendered torpid with consequent sickness, which continues many hours and even days, owing to the great exhaustion of its sensorial power of irritation; and the action of the heart and arteries becomes feeble from the deficient excitement of the sensorial power of association; and lastly, the absorbents of the cellular membrane act more violently in consequence of the accumulation of the sensorial power of association in the torpid heart and arteries, as explained in Suppl. I. 12.
A circumstance curiously similar to this occurs to some people on smoking tobacco for a short time, who have not been accustomed to it. A degree of sickness is presently induced, and the pulsations of the heart and arteries become feeble for a short time, as in the approach to fainting, owing to the direct sympathy between these and the stomach, that is from defect of the excitement of the power of association. Then there succeeds a tingling, and heat, and sometimes sweat, owing to the increased action of the capillaries, or perspirative and mucous glands; which is occasioned by the accumulation of the sensorial power of association by the weaker action of the heart and arteries, which now increases the action of the capillaries.
8. Another method of increasing absorption from the cellular membrane is by warm air, or by warm steam. If the swelled legs of a dropsical patient are inclosed in a box, the air of which is made warm by a lamp or two, copious sweats are soon produced by the increased action of the capillary glands, which are seen to stand on the skin, as it cannot readily exhale in so small a quantity of air, which is only changed so fast as may be necessary to permit the lamps to burn. At the same time the lymphatics of the cellular membrane are stimulated by the heat into greater action, as appears by the speedy reduction of the tumid legs.
It would be well worth trying an experiment upon a person labouring under a general anasarca by putting him into a room filled with air heated to 120 or 130 degrees, which would probably excite a great general diaphoresis, and a general cellular absorption both from the lungs and every other part. And that air of so great heat may be borne for many minutes without great inconvenience was shewn by the experiments made in heated rooms by Dr. Fordyce and others. Philos. Trans.
Another experiment of using warmth in anasarca, or in other diseases, might be by immersing the patient in warm air, or in warm steam, received into an oil-skin bag, or bathing-tub of tin, so managed, that the current of warm air or steam should pass round and cover the whole of the body except the head, which might not be exposed to it; and thus the absorbents of the lungs might be induced to act more powerfully by sympathy with the skin, and not by the stimulus of heat. See Uses of Warm Bath, Art. II. 2. 2. 1.
IV. 1. Venous absorption. Cellary, water-cresses, cabbages, and many other vegetables of the Class Tetradynamia, do not increase the heat of the body (except those whose acrimony approaches to corrosion), and hence they seem alone, or principally, to act on the venous system; the extremities of which we have shewn are absorbents of the red blood, after it has passed the capillaries and glands.
2. In the sea-scurvy and petechial fever the veins do not perfectly perform this office of absorption; and hence the vibices are occasioned by blood stagnating at their extremities, or extravasated into the cellular membrane. And this class of vegetables, stimulating the veins to perform their natural absorption, without increasing the energy of the arterial action, prevents future petechiæ, and may assist the absorption of the blood already stagnated, as soon as its chemical change renders it proper for that operation.
3. The fluids, which are extravasated, and received into the cells of the cellular membrane, seem to continue there for many days, so as to undergo some chemical change, and are then taken up again by the mouths of the cellular absorbents. But the new vessels produced in inflamed parts, as they communicate with the veins, are probably absorbed again by the veins along with the blood which they contain in their cavities. Hence the blood, which is extravasated in bruises or vibices, is gradually many days in disappearing; but after due evacuations the inflamed vessels on the white of the eye, if any stimulant lotion is applied, totally disappear in a few hours.
Amongst absorbents affecting the veins we should therefore add the external application of stimulant materials; as of vinegar, which makes the lips pale on touching them. Friction, and electricity.
4. Hæmorrhages are of two kinds, either arterial, which are attended with inflammation; or venous, from a deficiency in the absorbent power of this set of vessels. In the former case the torpentia are efficacious; in the latter steel, opium, alum, and all the tribe of sorbentia, are used with success.
5. Sydenham recommends vegetables of the class Tetradynamia in rheumatic pains left after the cure of intermittents. These pains are perhaps similar to those of the sea-scurvy, and seem to arise from want of absorption in the affected part, and hence are relieved by the same medicines.
V. 1. Intestinal absorption. Some astringent vegetables, as rhubarb, may be given in such doses as to prove cathartic; and, after a part of it is evacuated from the body, the remaining part augments the absorption of the intestines; and acts, as if a similar dose had been exhibited after the operation of any other purgative. Hence 4 grains of rhubarb strengthen the bowels, 30 grains first empty them.
2. The earthy salts, as alum, increase the intestinal absorption, and hence induce constipation in their usual dose; alum is said sometimes to cure intermittents, perhaps when their seat is in the intestines, when other remedies have failed. It is useful in the diabætes by exciting the absorbents of the bladder into their natural action; and combined with resin is esteemed in the fluor albus, and in gleets. Lime-stone or chalk, and probably gypsum, possess effects in some degree similar, and increase the absorption of the intestines; and thus in certain doses restrain some diarrhœas, but in greater doses alum I suppose will act as a cathartic. Five or ten grains produce constipation, 20 or 30 grains are either emetic or cathartic.
3. Earth of alum, tobacco-pipe clay, marl, Armenian bole, lime, crab's eyes or claws, and calcined hartshorn, or bone ashes, restrain fluxes; either mechanically by supplying something like mucilage, or oil, or rollers to abate the friction of the aliment over inflamed membranes; or by increasing their absorption. The two last consist of calcareous earth united to phosphoric acid, and the Armenian bole and marl may contain iron. By the consent between the intestines and the skin 20 grains of Armenian bole given at going into bed to hectic patients will frequently check their tendency to sweat as well as to purge, and the more certainly if joined with one grain of opium.
VI. 1. Absorption from the liver, stomach, and other viscera. When inflammations of the liver are subdued to a certain degree by venesection, with calomel and other gentle purges, so that the arterial energy becomes weakened, four or eight grains of iron-filings, or of salt of steel, with the Peruvian bark, have wonderful effect in curing the cough, and restoring the liver to its usual size and sanity; which it seems to effect by increasing the absorption of this viscus. The same I suppose happens in respect to the tumours of other viscera, as of the spleen, or pancreas, some of which are frequently enlarged in agues.
2. Hæmorrhages from the nose, rectum, kidnies, uterus, and other parts, are frequently attendant on diseased livers; the blood being impeded in the vena portarum from the decreased power of absorption, and in consequence of the increased size of this viscus. These hæmorrhages after venesection, and a mercurial cathartic, are most certainly restrained by steel alone, or joined with an opiate; which increase the absorption, and diminish the size of the liver.
Chalybeates may also restrain these hæmorrhages by their promoting venous absorption, though they exert their principal effect upon the liver. Hence also opiates, and bitters, and vitriolic acid, are advantageously used along with them. It must be added that some hæmorrhages recur by periods like the paroxysms of intermittent fevers, and are thence cured by the same treatment.
3. The jaundice is frequently caused by the insipidity of the bile, which does not stimulate the gall-bladder and bile-ducts into their due action; hence it stagnates in the gall-bladder, and produces a kind of crystallization, which is too large to pass into the intestines, blocks up the bile-duct, and occasions a long and painful disease. A paralysis of the bile duct produces a similar jaundice, but without pain.
4. Worms in sheep called flukes are owing to the dilute state of the bile; hence they originate in the intestines, and thence migrate into the biliary ducts, and corroding the liver produce ulcers, cough, and hectic fever, called the rot. In human bodies it is probable the inert state of the bile is one cause of the production of worms; which insipid state of the bile is owing to deficient absorption of the thinner parts of it; hence the pale and bloated complexion, and swelled upper lip, of wormy children, is owing to the concomitant deficiency of absorption from the cellular membrane. Salt of steel, or the rust of it, or filings of it, with bitters, increase the acrimony of the bile by promoting the absorption of its aqueous part; and hence destroy worms, as well as by their immediate action on the intestines, or on the worms themselves. The cure is facilitated by premising a purge with calomel. See Class I. 2. 3. 9.
5. The chlorosis is another disease owing to the deficient action of the absorbents of the liver, and perhaps in some degree also to that of the secretory vessels, or glands, which compose that viscus. Of this the want of the catameniæ, which is generally supposed to be a cause, is only a symptom or consequence. In this complaint the bile is deficient perhaps in quantity, but certainly in acrimony, the thinner parts not being absorbed from it. Now as the bile is probably of great consequence in the process of making the blood; it is on this account that the blood is so destitute of red globules; which is evinced by the great paleness of these patients. As this serous blood must exert less stimulus on the heart, and arteries, the pulse in consequence becomes quick as well as weak, as explained in Sect. XII. 1. 4.
The quickness of the pulse is frequently so great and permanent, that when attended by an accidental cough, the disease may be mistaken for hectic fever; but is cured by chalybeates, and bitters exhibited twice a day; with half a grain of opium, and a grain of aloe every night; and the expected catamenia appears in consequence of a restoration of the due quantity of red blood. This and the two former articles approach to the disease termed paralysis of the liver. Sect. XXX. 1. 4.
6. It seems paradoxical, that the same treatment with chalybeates, bitters, and opiates, which produces menstruation in chlorotic patients, should repress the too great or permanent menstruation, which occurs in weak constitutions at the time of life when it should cease. This complaint is an hæmorrhage owing to the debility of the absorbent power of the veins, and belongs to the paragraph on venous absorption above described, and is thence curable by chalybeates, alum, bitters, and particularly by the exhibition of a grain of opium every night with five grains of rhubarb.
7. Metallic salts supply us with very powerful remedies for promoting absorption in dropsical cases; which frequently are caused by enlargement of the liver. First, as they may be given in such quantities as to prove strongly cathartic, of which more will be said in the article on invertentia; and then, when their purgative quality ceases, like the effect of rhubarb, their absorbent quality continues to act. The salts of mercury, silver, copper, iron, zinc, antimony, have all been used in the dropsy; either singly for the former purpose, or united with bitters for the latter, and occasionally with moderate but repeated opiates.
8. From a quarter of a grain to half a grain of blue vitriol given every four or six hours, is said to be very efficacious in obstinate intermittents; which also frequently arise from an enlarged viscus, as the liver or spleen, and are thence owing to the deficient absorption of the lymphatics of that viscus. A quarter of a grain of white arsenic, as I was informed by a surgeon of the army, cures a quartan ague with great certainty, if it be given an hour before the expected fit. This dose he said was for a robust man, perhaps one eighth of a grain might be given and repeated with greater safety and equal efficacy.
Dr. Fowler has given many successful cases in his treatise on this subject. He prepares it by boiling sixty-four grains of white arsenic in a Florence flask along with as much pure vegetable fixed alcali in a pint of distilled water, till it is dissolved, and then adding to it as much distilled water as will make the whole exactly sixteen ounces. Hence there are four grains of arsenic in every ounce of the solution. This should be put into a phial of such a size of the edge of its aperture, that sixty drops may weigh one dram, which will contain half a grain of arsenic. To children from two years old to four he gives from two to five drops three or four times a day. From five years old to seven, he directs seven or eight drops. From eight years old to twelve, he directs from seven to ten drops. From thirteen years old to eighteen he directs from ten to twelve drops. From eighteen upwards, twelve drops. In so powerful a medicine it is always prudent to begin with smaller doses, and gradually to increase them.
A saturated solution of arsenic in water is preferable I think to the above operose preparation of it; as no error can happen in weighing the ingredients, and it more certainly therefore possesses an uniform strength. Put much more white arsenic reduced to powder into a given quantity of distilled water, than can be dissolved in it. Boil it for half an hour in a Florence flask, or in a tin sauce-pan; let it stand to subside, and filter it through paper. My friend Mr. Greene, a surgeon at Brewood in Staffordshire, assured me, that he had cured in one season agues without number with this saturated solution; that he found ten drops from a two-ounce phial given thrice a day was a full dose for a grown person, but that he generally began with five.
9. The manner, in which arsenic acts in curing intermittent fevers, cannot be by its general stimulus, because no intoxication or heat follows the use of it; nor by its peculiar stimulus on any part of the secreting system, since it is not in small doses succeeded by any increased evacuation, or heat, and must therefore exert its power, like other articles of the sorbentia, on the absorbent system. In what manner it destroys life so suddenly is difficult to understand, as it does not intoxicate like many vegetable poisons, nor produce fevers like contagious matter. When applied externally it seems chemically to destroy the part like other caustics. Does it chemically destroy the stomach, and life in consequence? or does it destroy the action of the stomach by its great stimulus, and life in consequence of the sympathy between the stomach and the heart? This last appears to be the most probable mode of its operation.
The success of arsenic in the cure of intermittent fevers I suspect to depend on its stimulating the stomach into stronger action, and thus, by the association of this viscus with the heart and arteries, preventing the torpor of any part of the sanguiferous system. I was led to this conclusion from the following considerations.
First. The effects of arsenic given a long time internally in small doses, or when used in larger quantities externally, seem to be similar to those of other great stimuli, as of wine or alcohol. These are a bloated countenance, swelled legs, hepatic tumours, and dropsy, and sometimes eruptions on the skin. The former of these I have seen, where arsenic has been used externally for curing the itch; and the latter appears on evidence in the famous trial of Miss Blandy at Chelmsford, about forty years ago.
Secondly. I saw an ague cured by arsenic in a child, who had in vain previously taken a very large quantity of bark with great regularity. And another case of a young officer, who had lived intemperately, and laboured under an intermittent fever, and had taken the bark repeatedly in considerable quantities, with a grain of opium at night, and though the paroxysms had been thrice thus for a time prevented, they recurred in about a week. On taking five drops of a saturated solution of arsenic thrice a day the paroxysms ceased, and returned no more, and at the same time his appetite became much improved.
Thirdly. A gentleman about 65 years of age had for about ten years been subject to an intermittent pulse, and to frequent palpitations of his heart. Lately the palpitations seemed to observe irregular periods, but the intermission of every third or fourth pulsation was almost perpetual. On giving him four drops of a saturated solution of arsenic from a two-ounce phial about every four hours for one day, not only the palpitation did not return, but the intermission ceased entirely, and did not return so long as he took the medicine, which was three or four days.
Now as when the stomach has its action much weakened by an over-dose of digitalis, the pulse is liable to intermit, this evinces a direct sympathy between these parts of the system, and as I have repeatedly observed, that when the pulse begins to intermit in elderly people, that an eructation from the stomach, voluntarily produced, will prevent the threatened stop of the heart; I am induced to think, that the torpid state of the stomach, at the instant of the production of air occasioned by its weak action, caused the intermission of the pulse. And that arsenic in this case, as well as in the cases of agues above mentioned, produced its effects by stimulating the stomach into more powerful action; and that the equality of the motions of the heart was thus restored by increasing the excitement of the sensorial power of association. See Sect. XXV. 17. Class IV. 2. 1. 18.
10. Where arsenic has been given as a poison, it may be discovered in the contents of the stomach by the smell like garlic, when a few grains of it are thrown on a red-hot iron. 2. If a few grains are placed between two plates of copper, and subjected to a red heat, the copper becomes whitened. 3. Dissolve arsenic in water along with vegetable alcali, add to this a solution of blue vitriol in water, and the mixture becomes of a fine green, which gradually precipitates, as discovered by Bergman. 4. Where the quantity is sufficient, some wheat may be steeped in a solution of it, which given to sparrows or chickens will destroy them.
VII. Absorption of the matter from venereal ulcers. No ulcer can heal, unless the absorption from it is as great as the deposition in it. The preparations or oxydes of mercury in the cure of the venereal disease seem to act by their increasing the absorption of the matter in the ulcers it occasions; and that whether they are taken into the stomach, or applied on the skin, or on the surface of the ulcers. And this in the same manner as sugar of lead, or other metallic oxydes, promote so rapidly the healing of other ulcers by their external application; and probably when taken internally, as rust of iron given to children affected with scrophulous ulcers contributes to heal them, and solutions of lead were once famous in phthisis.
The matter deposited in large abscesses does not occasion hectic fever, till it has become oxygenated by being exposed to the open air, or to the air through a moist membrane; the same seems to happen to other kinds of matter, which produce fever, or which occasion spreading ulcers, and are thence termed contagious. See Class II. 1. 3. II. 1. 5. II. 1. 6. 6. This may perhaps occur from these matters not being generally absorbed, till they become oxygenated; and that it is the stimulus of the acid thus formed by their union with oxygen, which occasions their absorption into the circulation, and the fever, which they then produce. For though collections of matter, and milk, and mucus, are sometimes suddenly absorbed during the action of emetics or in sea-sickness, they are probably eliminated from the body without entering the circulation; that is, they are taken up by the increased action of one lymphatic branch, and evacuated by the inverted action of some other lymphatic branch, and thus carried off by stool or urine.
But as the matter in large abscesses is in general not absorbed, till it becomes by some means exposed to air, there is reason to conclude, that the stimulus of this new combination of the matter with oxygen occasions its absorption; and that hence the absorption of matter in ulcers of all kinds, is still more powerfully effected by the external application or internal use of metallic oxydes; which are also acids consisting of the metal united with oxygen; and lastly, because venereal ulcers, and those of itch, and tinea, will not heal without some stimulant application; that is, the secretion of matter in them continues to be greater, than the absorption of it; and the ulcers at the same time continue to enlarge, by the contagion affecting the edges of them; that is, by the stimulus of the oxygenated matter stimulating the capillary vessels in its vicinity into actions similar to those of the ulcer, which produces it.
This effect of the oxydes of mercury occurs, whether salivation attends its use or not. Salivation is much forwarded by external warmth, when mercury is given to promote this secretion; but as the cure of venereal complaints depends on its absorbent quality, the act of salivation is not necessary or useful. A quarter of a grain of good corrosive sublimate twice a day will seldom fail of curing the most confirmed pox; and will as seldom salivate, if the patient be kept cool. A quarter of a grain thrice a day I believe to be infallible, if it be good sublimate.
Mercury alone when swallowed does not act beyond the intestines, its active preparations are the salts formed by its union with the various acids, as mentioned in the catalogue. Its union with the vegetable acid, when triturated with manna, is said to compose Keyser's Pill. Triturated with gum arabic it is much recommended by Plenk; and triturated with sugar and a little essential oil, as directed in a former Edinburgh Dispensatory, it probably forms some of the syrups sold as nostrums.
United with sulphur it seldom enters the circulation, as when cinnabar, or Æthiop's mineral, are taken inwardly. But united with fat and rubbed on the skin, it is readily absorbed. I know not whether it can be united to charcoal, nor whether it has been given internally when united with animal fat.
VIII. 1. Absorptions in general are increased by inanition; hence the use of evacuations in the cure of ulcers. Dr. Jurin absorbed in one night, after a day's abstinence and exercise, eighteen ounces from the atmosphere in his chamber; and every one must have observed, how soon his sheets became dry, after having been moistened by sweat, if he throws off part of the bed-clothes to cool himself; which is owing to the increased cutaneous absorption after the evacuation by previous sweat.
2. Now as opium is an universal stimulant, as explained in the article on Incitantia, it must stimulate into increased action both the secretory system, and the absorbent one; but after repeated evacuation by venesection, and cathartics, the absorbent system is already inclined to act more powerfully; as the blood-vessels being less distended, there is less resistance to the progress of the absorbed fluids into them. Hence after evacuations opium promotes absorption, if given in small doses, much more than it promotes secretion; and is thus eminently of service at the end of inflammations, as in pleurisy, or peripneumony, in the dose of four or five drops of the tincture, given before the access of the evening paroxysm; which I have seen succeed even when the risus sardonicus has existed. Some convulsions may originate in the want of the absorption of some acrid secretion, which occasions pain; hence these diseases are so much more certainly relieved by opium after venesection or other evacuations.
IX. 1. Absorption is increased by the calces or solutions of mercury, lead, zinc, copper, iron, externally applied; and by arsenic, and by sulphur, and by the application of bitter vegetables in fine powder. Thus an ointment consisting of mercury and hog's fat rubbed on the skin cures venereal ulcers; and many kinds of herpetic eruptions are removed by an ointment consisting of 60 grains of white precipitate of mercury and an ounce of hog's fat.
2. The tumours about the necks of young people are often produced by the absorption of a saline or acrid material, which has been deposited from eruptions behind the ears, owing to deficient absorption in the surface of the ulcer, but which on running down on the skin below becomes absorbed, and swells the lymphatic glands of the neck; as the variolous matter, when inserted into the arm, swells the gland of the axilla. Sometimes the perspirative matter produced behind the ears becomes putrid from the want of daily washing them, and may also cause by its absorption the tumours of the lymphatics of the neck. In the former case the application of a cerate of lapis calaminaris, or of cerussa applied in dry powder, or of rags dipped in a solution of sugar of lead, increases the absorption in the ulcers, and prevents the effusion of the saline part of the secreted material. The latter is to be prevented by cleanliness.
After the eruptions or ulcers are healed a solution of corrosive sublimate of one grain to an ounce of water applied for some weeks behind the ear, and amongst the roots of the hair on one side of the head, where the mouths of the lymphatics of the neck open themselves, frequently removes these tumours.
3. Linen rags moistened with a solution of half an ounce of sugar of lead to a pint of water applied on the erysipelas on anasarcous legs, which have a tendency to mortification, is more efficacious than other applications. White vitriol six grains dissolved in one ounce of rose-water removes inflammations of the eyes after evacuation more certainly than solutions of lead. Blue vitriol two or three grains dissolved in an ounce of water cures ulcers in the mouth, and other mucous membranes, and a solution of arsenic externally applied cures the itch, but requires great caution in the use of it. See Class II. 1. 5. 6.
4. Bitter vegetables, as the Peruvian bark, quilted between two shirts, or strewed in their beds, will cure the ague in children sometimes. Iron in solution, and some bitter extract, as in the form of ink, will cure one kind of herpes called the ringworm. And I have seen seven parts of bark in fine powder mixed with one part of ceruss, or white lead, in fine powder, applied dry to scrophulous ulcers, and renewed daily, with great advantage.
5. To these should be added electric sparks and shocks, which promote the absorption of the vessels in inflamed eyes of scrophulous children; and disperse, or bring to suppuration, scrophulous tumours about the neck. For this last purpose smart shocks should be passed through the tumours only, by inclosing them between two brass knobs communicating with the external and internal coating of a charged phial. See Art. II. 2. 2. 2.
X. 1. Bandages increase absorption, if they are made to fit nicely on the part; for which purpose it is necessary to spread some moderately adhesive plaster on the bandage, and to cut it into tails, or into shreds two inches wide; the ends are to be wrapped over each other; and it must be applied when the part is least tumid, as in the morning before the patient rises, if on the lower extremities. The emplastrum de minio made to cover the whole of a swelled leg in this manner, whether the swelling is hard, which is usually termed scorbutic; or more easily compressible, as in anasarca, reduces the limb in two or three days to its natural size; for this purpose I have sometimes used carpenter's glue, mixed with one twentieth part of honey to prevent its becoming too hard, instead of a resinous plaster; but the minium plaster of the shops is in general to be preferred. Nothing so much facilitates the cure of ulcers in the legs, as covering the whole limb from the toes to the knee with such a plaster-bandage; which increases the power of absorption in the surface of the sore.
2. The lymph is carried along the absorbent vessels, which are replete with valves, by the intermitted pressure of the arteries in their neighbourhood. Now if the external skin of the limb be lax, it rises, and gives way to the pressure of the arteries at every pulsation; and thence the lymphatic vessels are subject to the pressure of but half the arterial force. But when the external skin is tightened by the surrounding bandage, and thence is not elevated by the arterial diastole, the whole of this power is exerted in compressing the lymphatic vessels, and carrying on the lymph already absorbed; and thence the absorbent power is so amazingly increased by bandage nicely applied. Pains are sometimes left in the fleshy parts of the thighs or arms, after the inflammation is gone, in the acute rheumatism, or after the patient is too weak for further evacuation; in this case after internal absorbent medicines, as the bark, and opiates, have been used in vain, I have successfully applied a plaster-bandage, as above described, so as to compress the pained part.
XI. 1. We shall conclude by observing, that the sorbentia strengthen the whole habit by preventing the escape of the fluid part of the secretions out of the body, before it has given up as much nourishment, as it is capable; as the liquid part of the secretion of urine, sweat, saliva, and of all other secretions, which are poured into receptacles. Hence they have been said to brace the body, and been called tonics, which are mechanical terms not applicable to the living bodies of animals; as explained in Sect. XXXII. 3. 2.
2. A continued use of bitter medicines for years together, as of Portland's powder, or of the bark, is supposed to induce apoplexy, or other fatal diseases. Two cases of this kind have fallen under my observation; the patients were both rather intemperate in respect to the use of fermented liquors, and one of them had been previously subject to the gout. As I believe the gout generally originates from a torpor of the liver, which instead of being succeeded by an inflammation of it, is succeeded by an inflammation of some of the joints; or by a pimpled face, which is another mode, by which the disease of the liver is terminated. I conceive, that the daily use of bitter medicine had in these patients prevented the removal of a gouty inflammation from the liver to the membranes of the joints of the extremities, or to the skin of the face, by preventing the necessary torpor of these parts previous to the inflammation of them; in the same manner as cold fits of fever are prevented by the same medicines; and, as I believe, the returns of the gout have sometimes for two or three years been prevented by them.
One of these patients died of the apoplexy in a few hours; and the other of an inflammation of the liver, which I believe was called the gout, and in consequence was not treated by venesection, and other evacuations. From hence it appears, that the daily use of hop in our malt liquor must add to the noxious quality of the spirit in it, when taken to excess, and contribute to the production of apoplexy, or inflammation of the liver.
III. Catalogue of the Sorbentia.
I. Sorbentia affecting the skin.
    1. Acid of vitriol, of sea-salt, lemons, sloes, prunus spinosa, crabs, pyrus, quince, pyrus cydonia, opium.
    2. Externally calx of zinc, of lead, of mercury.
II. Sorbentia affecting the mucous membranes.
    1. Juice of sloes, crabs, Peruvian bark, cinchona, opium.
    2. Externally blue vitriol.
III. Sorbentia affecting the cellular membrane.
    1. Peruvian bark, wormwoods, artemisia maritima, artemisia absynthium, worm-seed, artemisia santonicum, chamomile, anthemis nobilis, tansey tanacetum, bogbean, menyanthes trifoliata, centaury, gentiana centaurium, gentian, gentiana lutea, artichoke-leaves, cynara scolymus, hop, humulus lupulus.
    2. Orange-peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace.
    3. Vomits, squill, digitalis, tobacco.
    4. Bath of warm air, of steam.
IV. Sorbentia affecting the veins.
    1. Water-cress, sisymbrium nasturtium aquaticum, mustard, sinapis, scurvy-grass cochlearia hortensis, horse-radish cochlearia armoracia, cuckoo-flower, cardamine, dog's-grass, dandelion, leontodon taraxacon, cellery apium, cabbage brassica.
    2. Chalybeates, bitters, and opium, after sufficient evacuation.
    3. Externally vinegar, friction, electricity.
V. Sorbentia affecting the intestines.
    1. Rhubarb, rheum palmatum, oak-galls, gallæ quercinæ, tormentil, tormentilla erecta, cinquefoil potentilla, red-roses, uva ursi, simarouba.
    2. Logwood, hæmatoxylum campechianum, succus acaciæ, dragon's blood, terra japonica, mimosa catechu.
    3. Alum, earth of alum, Armenian bole, chalk, creta, crab's claws, chelæ cancrorum, white clay, cimolia, calcined hartshorn, cornu cervi calcinatum, bone-ashes.
VI. Sorbentia affecting the liver, stomach, and other viscera. Rust of iron, filings of iron, salt of steel, sal martis, blue vitriol, white vitriol, calomel, emetic tartar, sugar of lead, white arsenic.
VII. Sorbentia affecting venereal ulcers. Mercury dissolved or corroded by the following acids:
    1. Dissolved in vitriolic acid, called turpeth mineral, or hydrargyrus vitriolatus.
    2. Dissolved in nitrous acid, called hydrargyrus nitratus ruber.
    3. Dissolved in muriatic acid, mercurius corrosivus sublimatus, or hydrargyrus muriatus.
    4. Corroded by muriatic acid. Calomel.
    5. Precipitated from muriatic acid, mercurius precipitatus albus, calx hydrargyri alba.
    6. Corroded by carbonic acid? The black powder on crude mercury.
    7. Calcined, or united with oxygen.
    8. United with animal fat, mercurial ointment.
    9. United with sulphur. Cinnabar.
    10. Partially united with sulphur. Æthiops mineral.
    11. Divided by calcareous earth. Hydrargyrus cum cretâ.
    12. Divided by vegetable mucilage, by sugar, by balsams.
VIII. Sorbentia affecting the whole system. Evacuations by venesection and catharsis, and then by the exhibition of opium.
IX. Sorbentia externally applied.
    1. Solutions of mercury, lead, zinc, copper, iron, arsenic; or metallic calces applied in dry powder, as cerussa, lapis calaminaris.
    2. Bitter vegetables in decoctions and in dry powders, applied externally, as Peruvian bark, oak bark, leaves of wormwood, of tansey, camomile flowers or leaves.
    3. Electric sparks, or shocks.
X. Bandage spread with emplastrum e minio, or with carpenter's glue mixed with one twentieth part of honey.
XI. Portland's powder its continued use pernicious, and of hops in beer.