A chemico-physiological essay : disproving the existence of an aeriform function in the skin, and pointing out, by experiment, the impropriety of ascribing absorption to the external surface of the human body / by Joseph Klapp.

  • Klapp, Joseph.
Date:
1805
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A chemico-physiological essay : disproving the existence of an aeriform function in the skin, and pointing out, by experiment, the impropriety of ascribing absorption to the external surface of the human body / by Joseph Klapp. 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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    Dr. Barton, who perhaps is better acquainted with the func- tions of the lymphatick system, than any other man in Ameri- ca, is inclined to give some credit to cutaneous absorption in frogs. He informed me, in private conversation, that he had frequently observed, that if this animal was confined in a dry glass vessel, it became enfeebled, diminished in its natural size, and scarcely able to leap; but if a small quantity of water was poured into the vessel, or the air in it only loaded with moisture, it soon acquired its wonted vigour, its body became plump, and its motions were usually lively. In the first part of the sixth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, an account is given of the Lacerta Subviolacea,* in which it is mentioned, that this animal was weighed at different times. On the 24th of March it weighed 342 grains, but in somewhat less than an hour, it weighed only 324 grains, having lost 18 grains. It is a well assertained fact, however, says the ingenious naturalist, Dr. Barton, that the weight of many of the Amphibia, particu- larly the frogs and lizards, is very various at different times, even in the course of the same day or hour. This difference of weight is often entirely independent on any aliment, whe- ther solid or fluid, being taken into the stomach, and must be ascribed to the absorption of water. Dr. Darwin, the ingenious author of the Zoonomia, says, a that those who have remained half an hour in a warm bath, when they have previously been exhausted by exercise, or ab- stinence from food or fluids, have absorbed so much as to in- crease their weight considerably. Dr. Jurin found an increase of weight to 18 ounces, by sleeping in a cool room, after a day's exercise and abstinence ; so much, in that situation, was absorbed from the atmosphere.! * A species of Lizard first described by Dr. Barton, and railed by him Lacerta Subviolacea.