what thickened, and some corrugations were evident at the
posterior surface. In some places large patches, some of them
of the size of half a crown, of white matter, were found adhering
to the mucous surface. These could be scraped off
without difficulty, and presented the appearance of a fine,
white powder, mixed up with mucus into a paste; but the
membrane underneath them, did not appear more vascular,
or more altered in texture than in other situations. On
looking at the fluid contents of the stomach a similar white
powder was perceived floating through it. The preparation,
though faded, shews some of these particulars. A full, and
instructive acoount of the medico-legal investigation in this
case is recorded by Dr. Beatty in the Dublin Medical Journal,
vol. 5. p. 203.—Professor Beatty.
A. b. 166. Stomach of an individual who died from swallowing
sulphuric acid. The surface presents numerous black
patches and bands, the latter corresponding evidently to the
prominences of the rugae; the mucous membrane in the interspaces
is soft, and shreddy; in several parts it has disappeared,
and the sub-mucous tissue is exposed. The liver presented a
very peculiar appearance. (See A. d. 707.)
The patient, a middle-aged man, swallowed the acid immediately
after taking a large draught of whiskey. He lingered
for five hours and a half in great agony, retaining his mental
faculties unimpaired to the last.—Maurice Collis, Esq.
*A. b. 167. Stomach, the mucous surface of which is charred
to blackness, by sulphuric acid taken as a poison.—There
is no perceptible breakage of texture,
*A. b. 168. Stomach, the mucous surface of which is charred
to blackness, with considerable lesion of texture. The
surface is fissured and shreddy: the places of greatest disorganization
are arranged in lines, corresponding to the prominences
of the rugae into which the mucous membrane is thrown,
naturally, during the condition of emptiness of the stomach, v
A. b. 169. Stomach, shewing the effects of arsenic taken
as poison. Case: Upon Wednesday evening, about nine
o’clock, A. B., a medical student, swallowed a draught containing
half an ounce of laudanum and three drachms of
solution of arsenic ; he was soon attacked with a strong tendency
to sleep, flushing of the face, and gastric pain, increased
on pressure: the pulse was variable and weak, and
there was total loss of voice. Upon thursday morning he
had the following symptoms,—nausea, constant inclination to
vomit, vomiting of mucous matter streaked with blood, pain
in the stomach, with heat and burning sensation, thirst, colic
pains, constriction about the cesophagus, spasms of the gas-
trocnemii; he had severe diarrhoea, mucous and bloody discharges,
tenesmus, finally, true dysentery ; the urinary secretion
was scanty, and the act of voiding it painful; the abdomen
was retracted, and he obtained little or no sleep ; pulse
eighty-eight. He was treated for gastro-enteritis. Friday
morning, he was pale, had slept but little and was roused by
horrid dreams: he suffered from debility, and excessive
irritability of the stomach : there was now evidence of great
inflammation of the rectum, constant disposition to go to
stool, great pain and tenesmus, protrusion of the mucous
membrane of the rectum, and bloody discharges. On Saturday
he had the same symptoms—hiccough, vomiting, and
constant tenesmus; his pulse became weaker, but his mind
was collected. Monday. In addition to his former symptoms,
he was now attacked with fits of dyspnoea and syncope; a
black circle surrounded his eyes; pulse one hundred and
twenty-three ; the crepitus of emphysema was now felt in the
right and left side of the neck, and beneath both clavicles.
His pains were at this time most excruciating, and the calls
to go to stool urgent and incessant; he suffered severely from
hiccough, and the prolapsed state of the rectum. He now
■ felt himself dying from pain and exhaustion, his flesh had
D