On the action of purgative medicines / by T. Lauder Brunton.
- Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
- Date:
- [1874]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the action of purgative medicines / by T. Lauder Brunton. 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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![will give rise to pains in the loins, spermatic cord, or groin. Pain at the lower angle of the scapula is referred by him to disorder and distension of the duodenum. This pain is very often accompanied by flatulence, and is described by patients as a “ pain in the pit of the stomach, shooting through between the blade-bones,” and it is not unfrequently termed by them “ windy spasms.” It is relieved by rhubarb and alkalies given before meals. Having said so much regarding the fsecal contents of the intes- tine and their local and remote actions, we must now consider a matter of no less importance, viz., the effect of purgatives upon the secretions which are poured into the intestinal tube by the various glands connected with it. The saliva which flows into the mouth from the submaxillary and parotid glands is swallowed and aids the digestion of starchy food in the stomach, and pro- bably the intestine. A part of its active principle, ptyalin, is reabsorbed, and some of it is excreted in the urine; ^ but as we shall here afterwards see, it is probable that another part is ex- creted again by the salivary glands and thus does its work twice over. This is at present only a probability as regards ptyalin, but it is a certainty in the case of several substances which are excreted by the salivary glands, such as iodide of potassium, for example, which can be detected with great ease. When this substance is swallowed, it is absorbed from the stomach, passes in the blood to the salivary glands, and is excreted by them much more readily than by the kidneys. It again passes down with the saliva to the stomach, is reabsorbed, and again excreted. Thus it may go round and round for a long time without getting entirely out of the body. (See gastro-salivary circulation. Pig. 2.) If we wish to remove it quickly and completely, we must give a purgative so as to prevent its reabsorption from the intestinal canal by causing its speedy expulsion. The same is the case with other iodides, such as those of lead or iron. Iodine has been shown by Bernard to possess the power of making iron pass readily through the salivary glands, the iodide of iron being found in the saliva soon after it has been injected into the blood, while other salts of iron, such as lactate, never make their ’ Cohnheim, “ Virchow’s Archiv,” xxviii. ]>. 250.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22429384_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
