BLOOD-DISINTEGRATION AND POISONS. 



101 



common constituent. . . . The blood is usually chocolate 

 colored . . . the liver and spleen are enlarged and filled 

 with the brownish debris of red blood-corpuscles; the bone- 

 marrow and the brain are often similarly colored. . . . The 

 changes in the blood are the result of the formation of a sub- 

 stance apparently identical with the methaBmoglobin of Hoppe- 

 Seyler and characterized by the appearance in its spectrum of 

 a dark line in the red. . . . That it is produced in the 

 body during life," continues Wood, "has been proved in cats, 

 dogs, and rabbits by A. Falck, 67 by H. Lenhartz, 68 and by 

 Calm, 69 and is also shown in man by the wide-spread staining 

 not only of the interior of the blood-vessels, but also of the 

 walls of the whole lymphatic system, found after death from 

 the chlorate." In antipyrin poisoning H. M. Briggs 70 observed 

 "blackish urine, with albumin and blood-corpuscles." The 

 peculiar lividity often seen in persons under the influence of 

 antipyrin "is probably due to changes in the blood itself," writes 

 Wood. "According to Lepine, methaemoglobm is largely 

 formed during [antipyrin] poisoning." That other authors 

 failed to detect it is accounted for by the fact that the doses 

 of antipyrin used in their experiments were inferior to those 

 employed by Lepine. 



The last stage of blood-disintegration, indicated by the 

 presence of hcematoporphyrin, and which corresponds with the 

 bronzing stage of Addison's disease as regards the degree of 

 suprarenal insufficiency, has only been observed so far in con- 

 nection with few toxics. In chronic sulphonal poisoning, 

 which is stated to have been fatal in seventeen cases out of 

 twenty, the first symptom is hsematoporphyrinuria. "The ex- 

 planation of the occurrence of hgematoporphyrinuria is at pres- 

 ent very difficult," says Professor Wood; "frequently it does 

 not come until several days after the ingestion of the last 

 dose." He refers to the case of Franz Mullen, in which the 

 hemoglobin fell during the period of red urine to 45 per cent., 

 returning with convalescence to 85 per cent.; and also to 



67 A. Falck: Archiv fiir d. gesam. Physiol. des Menschen u. der Thiere, 

 88 H. Lenhartz: Beitrage zur Path. Anat., etc., Festschrift, 1887. 

 69 Cahn: Archiv fiir exper. Path. u. Pharm., xxiv, 1887. 

 "H. M. Briggs: Loudon Med. Recorder, March, 1891. 



