Natural History. 203 



The limb sounded upon percussion, and when it was pressed 

 with the hand crepitation was distinctly heard ; the abdomen was 

 much distended with gas : the face and temples were deeply injected 

 with blood, and were of a violet colour. Upon dividing the scalp 

 a large quantity of dark red blood escaped. The nerves and lungs 

 presented no remarkable appearances, heart pale, and void of blood. 

 In the intestines were observed those alterations which are so com- 

 monly detected in cases of typhus fever. Bubbles of air filled the 

 vessels of the pia mater and the left vena saphena. The lymphatic 

 ganglions of the mesentery were enlarged, and contained gas, which 

 took fire from the flame of a taper, and produced an explosion. The 

 same phenomena also followed the exit of air which was contained 

 in the legs, thighs, and scrotum, where incisions had been made into 

 these parts. A puncture was made in the abdomen, and the gas 

 which escaped also took fire and burned for some time ; the flame 

 was blue at its base and white at its summit. The combustion 

 extended to the puncture which had been made with a trocar. The 

 edges of this aperture became black, and were consumed, and the 

 aperture itself was enlarged to double the size it had originally been 

 made. The gas which was contained in the subcutaneous cellular 

 tissue of the thorax was equally inflammable *. 



4. POISONING BY MOULDY BREAD. 



Dr. Westerhoff attended, in 1826, upon two children of a labourer, 

 who had been simultaneously attacked with the following symp- 

 toms. The eldest, ten years of age, had his face red and swollen, 

 his countenance was animated and bewildered, tongue dry, pulse 

 feeble and quickened, head-ache, giddiness, unextinguishable thirst, 

 violent cholic, desire to sleep, and alternate unsuccessful attempts 

 to vomit; subsequently sudden vomiting and very abundant alvine 

 evacuations, after which very great faintness, indifference to every- 

 thing, and sleep only for a few minutes at a time. The younger, 

 eight years of age, was even more violently attacked. Having 

 understood that they had eaten the preceding day only a piece of 

 old mouldy rye bread, Dr. Westerhoff prescribed a demulcent 

 treatment, and they soon recovered. 



Some time afterward, several boatmen having eaten some mouldy 

 rye bread were attacked with similar symptoms, but they were 

 quickly relieved by vomiting, which came on spontaneously. The 

 question suggested by these cases is, whether this kind of poison- 

 ing arises from an alteration in the quality of the bread, or from the 

 vegetation which constitutes mouldiness (mucor mucedo) t 



5. CURE OF SCROFULA BY IODINE. 



A report, expressing the utmost approbation, has been made by 

 MM. Dumeril and Majendie to the Academic des Sciences at Paris, 

 upon M. Lugol's application of iodine, in scrofulous cases, at the 



* Med, and Phys, Jour., 1831, p. 514, t Archives G6n6rales. 



