Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/274

 my notice in this city in 1843, and which proved fatal in five hours [p. 239], the mucus in the stomach, which was very abundant, put on the appearance of curdled milk, owing to its being rendered opaque and white by the large quantity of finely powdered arsenic diffused through it; and it was actually mistaken for curdled milk by several medical men.—Sometimes the matter effused is true coagulable lymph. This is rarely seen as the effect of arsenic. I have remarked it, however, very distinctly in dogs, and Dr. Baillie saw it once in the human subject. It is of course quite decisive of the presence of inflammation. It is known from tough mucus, to which it bears some resemblance, by its reticulated disposition, and by the threads of the reticulation corresponding with inflamed lines on the stomach beneath.

Another very common appearance is the presence of a sanguinolent fluid, or even actual blood in the cavity of the stomach. In several of the cases which have come under my own notice, the subject of analysis was a thick, dirty brownish-red fluid, evidently containing a large proportion of blood; and many other examples of the same nature are on record. In Laborde's case formerly mentioned actual clots were found among the contents; in the instance of a woman who died in five days, as related by Zittmann, half a pound of coagulated blood was found in the stomach; and in another case mentioned by Professor Bernt, the stomach contained no less than three pounds of black ichor mixed with clots of blood. A good deal of reliance has been placed on bloody effusion in proof of the administration of arsenic or some other active irritant. It is of some importance, as it appears not to be an effect of that irritation which causes cholera.

Among the appearances observed in the stomach the presence of arsenic may be included, though not properly speaking a morbid appearance. Under the head of the medical evidence of poisoning generally it was stated, that many causes conspire to remove from the stomach during life poisons which have actually caused death. In addition to the illustrative cases there alluded to, I may here also refer to an interesting case communicated to me by Mr. J. H. Stallard, and already noticed for a different purpose [p. 235]. Arsenic in no large quantity had been swallowed in tea, and death took place in four hours only. Here none of the poison could be detected by Marsh's process, either in the contents of the stomach, or in its tissues, or in the liver.—In the instance of arsenic, however, the operation of the causes which tend to remove the poison is prevented by various circumstances, in particular by its insolubility and firm adhesion to the stomach. Hence it happens, that even after long continued vomiting a portion still generally remains behind, either in the contents of the stomach or in its tissues. Sometimes the arsenic exists