Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. II

by Erasmus Darwin

[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].