Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/277

 *ance deserves notice; but of course whatever empties the colon thoroughly will have the same effect.

The chief appearances in the alimentary canal have now been mentioned. The next quarter in which deceased appearances are to be met with is the cavity of the chest. Here are sometimes seen redness of the pleura, redness and congestion of the lungs, redness of the inner surface of the heart, and redness of the lining membrane of the windpipe.

Redness of the diaphragmatic part of the pleura, or even of the whole of that membrane, has been at times observed; as one would expect, indeed, from the pectoral symptoms which occasionally prevail during life. Inflammation of the lungs themselves has also been noticed. Dr. Campbell twice found great congestion of blood in the lungs of animals poisoned by the application of arsenic outwardly. Sproegel likewise found the pleura, pericardium, and whole lungs deeply inflamed in animals. Dr. Venables found the pleura of a bright crimson colour in some poultry maliciously poisoned with arsenic,—more redness there indeed than in the stomach. Mr. James says that in his experiments on animals he constantly found the lungs much gorged with blood, unless when death occurred quickly; but that he could see no evidence of the congestion being inflammatory. A distinct example of advanced pneumonia in man is related in Pyl's Magazine: the patient died after vomiting and purging incessantly for eight days; and on dissection the lungs were found "in the highest state of inflammation; and so congested as to resemble a lump of clotted blood." A distinct case of the same nature is related in Henke's Journal; this patient had obvious pneumonic symptoms during life; and in the dead body the lungs were found so gorged, that, on being cut into, nothing could be seen but clotted blood in their cellular structure. In a case formerly adverted to [p. 252] of death from arsenic applied externally for scirrhus, excessive congestion was found in the lungs, "both lungs being completely gorged with blood, and presenting all the characters of pulmonary apoplexy." In another described by Dr. Booth of Birmingham, where death occurred in seven hours only, the lungs presented sufficient congestion to have completely impeded respiration.

It has been alleged that the inner surface of the heart has been found red from inflammation. In a case examined judicially at Paris by Orfila, the left cavities of the heart were of a mottled red hue, and in the ventricle were seen many small crimson specks which penetrated into the muscular part of the parietes. The right cavities had a deep reddish-black tint, and the ventricle of that side contained specks like those in the other, but more faint. Orfila adds,