Hypodermic or subcutaneous medication : with special remarks on morphine, atropine, atropo-morphine, and apomorphine, and directions for making their hypodermic solutions : introduction to a discussion in the Section of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association in Cardiff / by Talfourd Jones.

Jones, Talfourd.

Date:: [1885]

Credit: Hypodermic or subcutaneous medication : with special remarks on morphine, atropine, atropo-morphine, and apomorphine, and directions for making their hypodermic solutions : introduction to a discussion in the Section of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association in Cardiff / by Talfourd 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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Ia subcutanoous injection, the fluid is rapidly absorbed by the lymph-vessels, the tissue-fluid canals, and the blood-vessols of the cellular tissue. Absorption is more rapid if the fluid directly enter open stomata of any of these canals. It is still more rapid if the fluid be accidently injected into a vessel of perceptible calibre. Eulenborg uses the term intravenous infusion for those cases of intra- vascular injection in which the fluid is injected into a vein, and lymphatic infusion when it is thrown into a lymphatic. He has never soen a good example of the direct penetration of a subcutaneous vein of any calibre, and my own experience is similar, though 1 have seen several cases in which, judging from the rapid effects which followed, I believed that some minute vessels had been wounded ; and in most of these cases I noted a drop or more of 1 loo 1 at the site of the puncture. In Professor Play’s translation of Eulenborg’s treatise on En- demic and Hypodermic Medication, which has just born published, ho odors soma important ovidonco on the quickness of elimination of drugs hypodeimically injected. Thus administered, drugs pass more rapidly into the mine than after administration by mouth or rectum ; their elimination begins sooner ; their elimination also ends sooner, and the whole stay of tho drug in the organism is shorter ; and tho inference is, that every single dose given hypodermically corresponds to a more intense, but yet a more evanescent, effect; aud tliat a cumulative result is more difficult to obtain by subcutaneous injection from a succession of doses, than it is from administration by mouth. Before proceeding further, I wish to offer somo remarks upon hypodermic syringos, and then wo will discuss the question of hypo- dermic remedies, and considor as many as time permits. Tho syringe which I use has been my pocket-companion for about cighteon years. I have used it thousands of times, and it is still in perfect working order. It was made by AYoiss. The barrel is made of glass : tho piston-rod aud the fittings of silver. The piston-rod is graduated into hall minims, and is furnished with a screw stopper, which can bo twirled rapidly up and down the piston-rod, and which can be so faxed as to stop tho movement of the piston at any required point. Many of the syringes now in use are based upon this principle ; yet there aro many practitioners who, possessing such a syringe, do not seem to appreciate the value of the stopper, and do not uso it. When this is so, I have found that it is due either to a want of a clear per- ception of the proper way to use it, or to the fact, which is exceed- ingly common, that the piston-rod and the stopper are so badly made lh6 lattcr W111 n,°,t 'vork properly on the former. It is essential that the stopper should be so adjusted that it can be made to run up and down the rod with the slightest touch or fillip of tho finger When such is the case, no time is lost ; indeed, time is saved. 1 have dwelt on this point, because it is one which appears to me to bo of much practical importance. Those only who are thoroughly thflV^nnLWUwpi, Vf eau fully appreciate the many advantage of ts.^PPor‘ ^ ltk. tlle injection can be introduced with greater greater nicety, and greater accuracy. Twice in eighteen years it has been found necessary to put a fresh piston-leather to my natenf’b tk® Ia&occasion Messrs. Weiss fitted on one of theil patent hard rubber pistons, which answers very well. I have not th«fr^entiy ?v6n ar ■synn»° brouSht for immediate use in which ,l“ dry “d•“«, — th. “e. * bavc other syringes with plain leather pistons, that I keep for validcd To1ohviU’iPOt?S’ i t’1 would. if not attended to, beconfe in- fnlmtimA tn obviate this tendency, we should examine all our syringes is°needed s XA ^^ Pist°n-]-eather bc dry a“d loose, all that • 1lt0 uck UP some water into the syringe, and replace the syringe in its case. Allow mo to add that our hvpodermic svrinves are not the only syringes that require to bo kept n S S and it will not uncommonly be found that the min who has a

Licence and re-use

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