Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1908 — The MAN of the HOUR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The MAN of the HOUR

Osmosis is the passage of a liquid or a gas through a membrane. Sometimes medicines are administered in this way. But how far we are from understanding the details of this subject as related to the human body is indicated by some experiments of Professor Lpuis Kahlenberg. All attempts to Introduce lithium salts into the system by absorption through the skin have failed, and yet the same salts make their way readily through the mucous membrane. When the feet are soaked in a solution of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, an alkaline reaction quickly takes place internally. But citric acid refuses to act the same wimt. although both of the acids have a similar effect when taken through the digestive tract. Sulphuric acid, then, has quite a different physiological effect when it enters through the skin instead of through the mouth. Living membranes act differently with regard to osmosis from dead ones, and the same meifebraues which behave alike with regard to some substances behave very differently from one another with regard to other substances.

Osmosis In Medicine.