104 Chemical and Medical Facts, ^c, 



continued vomiting, which ultimately produced the 

 appearance of coffee-grounds, in what he threw up. 

 Litmus-paper showed the existence of a strong acid 

 in his stomach, this being neutralised by carbonated 

 soda. A vein of his arm being opened, as he was ro- 

 bust, and perspiration excited by flannel on his skin, 

 he soon got well. 



Here the vehement agitation of vomiting gave such 

 impetus to the blood, that the small extreme vessels 

 of the interior coat of the stomach were ruptured by 

 the reiterated impulse, and small particles of blood 

 became extravasated. Their long rout from the lungs, 

 in which their oxygen was dissipated, and their scarlet 

 colour lost, and the materials with which they came in 

 contact, in the stomach, probably darkened them to 

 the colour of coffee-grounds. 



A longer continuance of vomiting, to increase the 

 dimensions of the ruptures, and the extravasation, 

 would have given the appearance of what is termed 

 black-vomit. — Thin blood might be extravasated by 

 less force, as at the end of typhus fever. 



The destructive effects of breathing air that has 

 been much respired, are demonstrated by the garrison 

 of Calcutta, confined in the black-hole, or dungeon, 

 about nine hours, by Suraja Dowlah. In that short 

 space of time, of one hundred and forty-six healthy 

 men, crowded together in a small unventilated room, 

 one hundred and twenty-three lay dead. The survi- 

 vors, twenty-three in number, were all in putrid fever. 



