“_Fourth Experiment._ I injected a drachm of quicksilver, that had been passed through goat’s skin, into the mesentric vein of a dog of middle size. The animal exhibited several severe symptoms which I shall not mention, because they probably depended on the opening of the abdomen and the inflammation that resulted from it; perceiving that they would become fatal, I killed him by another experiment, fifty two hours after the first. On opening the body, I found all the mercury in the liver; each globule was the centre of a small collection of pus, of which it was the cause; but the liver was but slightly diseased, but little inflamed, and only blacker and more gorged with blood than usual. The stomach contained an unusual quantity of very green bile; I could not discover any quicksilver in the other organs.” We see from all these different facts, that it is necessary for every thing that enters the circulation to arrive at it by very narrow channels, and after having been, as it were, sifted by the agents of absorption; this is one use of the absorbent organs that has not as yet been noticed. These facts also throw light on the properties of substances injected into the veins of animals, after having been dissolved in oil. We can believe that when these oily solutions are carried into the intestinal canal, they are not absorbed till after they have been gradually changed into a kind of emulsion, and we know that in this form fatty substances may be introduced with impunity into the circulation. We can in fact inject into the veins a large quantity of milk, and the portion of butter which is suspended in it, will not produce the effects which would necessarily result from it, if we injected this substance pure and only rendered liquid by heat. [93] Is it true that common people observe without prejudice? Have they not, on the contrary, on several physiological and pathological phenomena deeply rooted prejudices? It is besides a very singular idea to wish to judge by the name which they give to an affection, of the organ primarily affected. If we always reasoned in this way the expression of _sick at heart_ which is given to nausea, would assign to vomiting a wholly different nature from what would be correct. CHAPTER VIII. OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE DEATH OF THE LUNGS OVER THAT OF THE ORGANS IN GENERAL. I have just shewn in what way the interruption of the chemical phenomena which take place in the lungs, annihilates the functions of the heart and brain. It remains me to shew, that the other organs of the body are as much affected by such cessation; so that asphyxia, as I have said, is a general disease, and not an affection of any one organ in particular.