On the chemical circulation in the body / Henry Bence Jones.

  • Jones, Bence, 1814-1873.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the chemical circulation in the body / Henry Bence Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    was killed in a few hours after a dose of lithium, and the third was given the same dose and killed after many days. The following Table shows the rate at which chloride of lithium passes out of the textures :— 2 grs. in 6 hours gave plenty everywhere. In 6 days gave no trace in the alcoholic extract of the kidneys, livers, or lenses. » »> >> •» j> — „ „ 4 days gave none in the lens. 1 gr. in 5j hours showed partly in the lens. „ 3 days gave faint traces in the lens. It follows from these and other experiments that twice in six days and once in four days two grains of chloride of lithium, which in six houi's gave lithium everywhere, in six days ceased to be detectable in the lens, and that even in three days the lithium is most probably diminishing in the lens. Having thus gained a clear knowledge of the time it takes for a small quantity of lithia to pass in and out of the envelope of an animal, I proceeded, through the kindness of my friends Mr. Bowman and Mr. Critchett, to trace the passage of lithium into that part of the envelope which is most distant from the blood circulation in man. Lithia water is by no means an unpleasant drink, and a few minutes, or a few hours, or a few days before the operation for cataract, twenty grains of car- bonate of lithia dissolved in water were taken. No less than seven cataracts were previously examined with the greatest care, to determine whether lithia was usually absent, and in only one instance was the very faintest trace of lithium detectable. The following Table shows the rate of passage of carbonate of lithia into and out of cataracts—■ 20 grains of carbonate of lithia were taken 25 minutes before the operation—No trace of lithium was found in the cataract. 2^ hours 3^ 4 4i 4i 5 5 7 (old man) 4 davs spontane-v ous soft I I cataract, | 25 to 30 5 hours —Lithium in the watery extract of the cataract. —Lithium in each particle. —Traces in alcoholic extract of ash. —In alcoholic extract not the slightest trace of lithium. » M »» —Slightest trace in the alcoholic extract. It follows from these experiments, that in the human body twenty grains of carbonate of lithia poured into the funnel in two and a half hours will have partly passed into every particle of the envelope and