50 MEMOIR OF JOHN HUNTER. 



bs "terally awanting. Mr Hunter's inquiries on the 

 subject of digestion here came to his aid, and he in- 

 formed them that he did not participate in their sur- 

 prise that the appearance was not new to him 

 and that it arose from the peculiar properties of the 

 gastric juice, which, under certain rare and peculiar 

 circumstances, possessed the power of destroying, 

 immediately after death, to a greater or less extent, 

 the very organ which had secreted it. This was not 

 only an important fact in general pathology which 

 Mr Hunter had ascertained, and which was pre- 

 viously unknown, and subsequently denied, but it 

 bore, in an important way, on the subject of death 

 by poisons, and shortly led to Mr Hunter's taking 

 a prominent part, as a witness, in a case of life and 

 death, to which we shall presently advert. 



In the early part of 1773, Mr Hunter was the 

 subject of a very violent and alarming, though tran- 

 sient attack of illness, which came on unexpectedly, 

 and apparently in consequence of an affair which 

 acutely affected his mind. It exhibited itself under 

 the form of an excruciating pain at the pit of the 

 stomach. So violent was the pain, that he tried 

 every position to procure ease : he sat down, walked, 

 laid himself on the carpet, then upon chairs, but 

 could find no relief. When he was walking about 

 the room, he cast his eyes on a looking-glass, and 

 observed his countenance to be pale, his lips white, 

 having the appearance of a dead man. This alarm- 

 ed him, and led him to feel for his pulse ; but he 



