APPENDIX. D. 339 



notices of the stomach and abdominal viscera — where appearan- 

 ces are presented which cannot be mistaken. 



" J« the stomach inflammatory marks are very seldom wanting ; 

 an 1 tui-ning our attention to a rabid one, we are often first 

 struck with its appearance of distention, and, on opening it, the 

 cause is seen to arise from an accumulation of a considerable, 

 oftentimes of an immense, mass of indigestible substances, as 

 hay, straw, wood, coals, or, in fact, of any surrounding matter 

 which has proved small enough for deglutition. This disposi- 

 tion to take in unusual ingesta exists in every variety of the 

 complaint ; and as sickness and vomiting, though common in its 

 early stages, are but seldom to be found dui'ing the lat'er 

 periods of it, so the substances taken in being of an indigestible 

 nature, necessarily remain within the stomach until death. 

 There is little reason to doubt that a morbid sympathy in this 

 organ is the occasion of this peculiarity, and that the presence 

 of these hard bodies gives some relief, probably by the disten- 

 tion toey occasion. Certain it is, that the appearance of this 

 indigestible and incongruous matter within the stomach is so 

 common, that it becomes a pathognomonic sign of the utmost 

 importance, and it should be searched for in every case where 

 doubt exists. 



" In describing the criteria of the disease, I have purposely 

 omitted before enlarging on this particular, that I might here 

 do it more fully, and that I might at once describe both the 

 cause and effect : I must now therefore observe, that, of all the 

 characteristic marks of the complaint, I consider this as the most 

 genuine, and as the one liable to the least variation. I will not 

 say that I never saw a rabid stomach, after death, without this 

 crude indigestible mass; but, during the examination of more 

 than two hundred cases, I do not recollect to have met with but 

 very few indeed in which there has not been either this, or a 

 chocolate-colored fluid : and when these indigesta are not 

 present, on inquiry it will still be often found that such have 

 been vomited up. This genuine characteristic cannot, there- 

 fore, be too strongly kept in mind, because it is one that may be 



