118 ON DIGITALIS, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE URINE 



Post-mortem examination made immediately. 



On opening the thorax, air rushed in. The lungs were natural in colour, and 

 very much collapsed. Both sides of the heart were full of blood. The vena 

 cava and venous system generally turgid. The veins of intestines and viscera 

 congested. The venous blood was dark in colour. On pinching the phrenic 

 nerve, the diaphragm contracted; and on pinching the left phrenic, the contrac- 

 tion was not confined to the left side, the fibres of the right half visibly and 

 plainly contracting. On tying the vena cava inferic r, and cutting it beyond 

 the ligature, the fluid blood, which issued from the lower end into the thoracic 

 cavity, and which was very dark coloured coagulated in about a minute. (This 

 is by guess, not by a watch.) The heart seems quite normal. Bladder was full. 

 No emission of semen or mucus was observed. Half a grain of the digitaline 

 used in this experiment had been dissolved in a small quantity of spirit for 

 another purpose, but not used. The spirit had evaporated, and the digitaline was 

 in a resinous-looking mass— not in powder. 



Exp. yil. — Jan. 23. — The dog operated on was a large mongrel. It was 

 thin and weak, and had had loose and sometimes bloody stools for some days 

 back. It was tied down and chloroformed. I then exposed both vagi, and 

 passed ligatures under them, so as to pull them nearer the surface, when they 

 were wanted for section. The hsemadynamometer was then inserted into the 

 left carotid. The mean tube seemed somewhat choked at the capillary part, 

 80 as not to work freely, and its indications were therefore not quite trust- 

 worthy. 



