Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/288

 sickness, vomiting, and pain in the belly. On going to bed he fell soon quiet; and six hours after he took ill, he was found dead. Arsenic was detected in the stomach, and in what he vomited; and considerable redness was seen on the villous coat of the stomach. But the most remarkable appearances were gorging of the cerebral vessels, adhesion of the dura mater to the membranes beneath, and the effusion of eight ounces of serosity into the lateral ventricles. The only instance I am acquainted with to justify the opinion that extravasation of blood into the brain may occur from poisoning with arsenic, is the remarkable case of apparent death from eating poultry poisoned with arsenic, which was communicated to me by Mr. Jamieson of Aberdeen. The individual, after suffering under the usual primary symptoms, became apoplectic after a fit of sneezing, and died three days afterwards; and in the dead body, besides other signs of disease in the brain, a recent clot of blood was found in the right anterior lobe. (See p. 69.)

It is quite unnecessary to notice lividity of the skin among the signs of poisoning with arsenic, except for the mere purpose of reminding the medical jurist that, although it has been sometimes much relied on as a sign of death from arsenic, it is not of the slightest importance as a sign either of that or of any other kind of poisoning. (See p. 51.)

The action of arsenic on the alimentary canal after death will now require a few remarks; the purpose of which is to prepare the medical inspector for investigating attempts to impute the crime of poisoning to innocent persons, by introducing arsenic into the dead body. Such attempts, according to Orfila, have been made; but I am not acquainted with any actual instance.

The action of arsenic on dead intestine has been fully examined by the last mentioned author. If it is introduced into the anus immediately after death, and allowed to remain there twenty-four hours, the mucous membrane in contact with it becomes of a lively red colour, with darker interspersed patches as if from extravasation. The other coats are natural; and so is the mucous membrane itself wherever the poison does not actually touch it. Consequently the margin of the coloration is abrupt and well-defined. When the arsenic is not introduced till twenty-four hours after death, the part to which it is actually applied presents dark patches, while the rest of the membrane is quite healthy.

The appearance of redness in the former case is probably the result of lingering vitality. The cause of the dark appearance in the latter it is not easy to comprehend.

When arsenic has been applied, during life, the redness, if it has had time to begin at all, extends to some distance from the points with which the poison has been in contact, and passes by degrees into the healthy colour of the surrounding membrane.

On reviewing what has been said of the pathological appearances