The Absorption of Drugs and Poisons Through the Skin and Mucous Membranes

The importance of absorption of drugs and poisons through the skin and mucous membranes needs no emphasis. This subject is of vital interest not only to medical men but to all biologists concerned with that borderline science known as pharmacology, which has to do with the relationship of the physicochemical sciences, on the one hand, and the biologic, on the other. It is also of great practical significance, particularly to dermatologists and other medical specialists who prescribe drugs and chemicals for application to skin or mucous membranes. I have taken a lively interest in experimental investigations on absorption of drugs and poisons for more than twenty years. Indeed, in 1910 I recorded a research on lavage in the treatment of acute phenol poisoning in which the absorption of phenol through both the skin and the mucosa of the stomach and the intestines was experimentally studied. This research led to some