Note 39 — Prop. IV.—That some few remedial agents act locally on the mucous surface, either before absorption, or without being absorbed at all. That they are chiefly as follow:— (continued 2)

"The state or condition of formation or decomposition of a body, the state of change of place or motion in which its particles are, exerts an influence on the particles of many other compounds, if in contact with them. The latter are brought into the same state; their elements are separated and newly arranged in a similar way, and acquire the power of entering into combination, a power which they did not, under similar circumstances, previously possess."—Liebig's Animal Chemistry, vol. i. p. 194.