44 SPITZKA— OBSERVATIONS REGARDING INFLICTION [April 23, 



tricular wall of the heart had ruptured in several places. In one 

 case I was able to elicit slight fibrillar contractions, limited to the 

 small area stimulated, by touching the wall of the heart with a cold 

 instrument. In several cases mechanical irritation of the atrio- 

 ventricular bundle elicited slight contractions limited to the columnse 

 carnese and the papillary muscles of the left ventricle. In experi- 

 ments conducted with Professor Coplin upon one of these bodies, 

 this mode of contraction could be called forth by faradaic stimula- 

 tion, although no response was elicited by direct stimulation. In 

 the same individual it was impossible to elicit any response via the 

 nerve system, either through stimulation of the cortex (exposed 

 within about ten minutes), the spinal cord or peripheral nerves, 

 although muscular reflexes could always be called forth by directly 

 stimulating the muscle. 



The lungs are usually devoid of blood and weigh only seven or 

 eight ounces avoirdupois each. 



The blood is profoundly altered bio-chemically. It is of a very 

 dark, brownish hue, and it rarely coagulates. Either the fibrinogen, 

 or the fibrin-ferment, or both, are destroyed. 



The maximum damage is undoubtedly wrought in the nerve 

 system though this is not always manifest. Regarding the histo- 

 logic changes, reports from various sources vary. There is a gen- 

 eral agreement as to the frequent occurrence of capillary hemor- 

 rhages, disruptive and destructive for adjacent tissues. In the 

 nerve-cells themselves there appears to be no apparent change, 

 although there must have resulted terrific molecular change. P. A. 

 Fish found vacuoles in one case, but no visible changes in another. 

 Aside from the capillary hemorrhages and the arterial anemia with 

 venous congestion, the brain shows no gross changes of appear- 

 ance. In a case of accidental death from contact with an alternating 

 current of 1,000 volts for about one half minute, Jellinek fojund 

 extensive streaks of capillary hemorrhages in the gray substance of 

 brain and spinal cord together with more or less destruction of the 

 nerve cells, extrusion of the cell nucleus, etc. 



In the case of Strollo, I have had sections made of the pons, 

 oblongata and spinal cord by my colleague, Dr. Radasch, and these 

 have revealed curious circular areas with a peripheral zone of con- 



