On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, fyc. 495 



productive of the fatal issue, sometimes following its adminis- 

 tration. 



In one of his experiments, he gave a small dog, one hundred 

 and forty grains of phosphorus, divided into fourteen small cylin- 

 ders ; the animal having eaten nothing for thirty hours. He 

 seems not to have suffered very greatly, and did not die until 

 after twenty-one hours. 



On dissection, the mucous membrane of the stomach was 

 strongly inflamed, and covered with a stringy and flaky matter, 

 easily detached. The muscular coat was of a bright red through 

 a part of its extent. The mucous membrane of the duodenum, 

 jejunum, and first half of the ileon, of a purple red colour, and 

 covered by a thick fluid as black as ink. No phosphorus ap- 

 peared in any of the parts above named ; but the lower half of 

 the ileon exhibited ten nodes at variable distances, containing ten 

 cylinders of phosphorus of a reddish colour, and ninety-four grains 

 in weight ; — diflTusing a tolerably copious smoke on opening the 

 intestine : the mucous membrane corresponding to the places 

 where they were found, xvere much less red than the parts already 

 passed through. Three other nodes were found at the inferior 

 portion of the colon, containing three small cylinders weighing 

 twenty-six grains, and the muscular membrane here was still 

 less red than of the ileon ; the fourteenth cylinder was found 

 in the rectum, weighing seven grains, and the internal coats 

 were in a natural state. Thirteen grains then, of phosphorus, of 

 one hundred and forty grains, had been removed, or disappeared, 

 which is about the eleventh part ; in which we find a curious 

 coincidence with the experiment of Dr. Harlan. Of eleven 

 grains, employed by him, the whole had disappeared, and inflam- 

 mation extended even further than in the experiments of Orfila ; 

 we may reasonably suppose, therefore, that had more been 

 given, at least two grains more might have disappeared ; which 

 being the amount that Orfila mentions as lost in his case, may 

 possibly give us, pretty nearly, the quantum that, under common 

 circumstances, might be converted into phosphorous, or phospho- 

 ric acid, by the oxygen it might meet with. Now, if this be the 

 case, it would require but a little calculation to enable any one 

 to previously decompose or drive out the atmospheric oxygen 

 from the stomach and intestines ; and then, thirteen or one 

 hundred and liiirty grains might be swallowed with impunitv. 



