388 POISONS, CONTAGIONS, MIASMS. 



disease the saliva becomes viscous and acquires an 

 offensive smell. 



Experiments have been made for the purpose of 

 ascertaining the presence of some matter in the 

 sausages to which their poisonous action could be 

 ascribed ; but ^no such matter has been detected. 

 Boiling w^ater and alcohol completely destroy the 

 poisonous properties of the sausages, without them- 

 selves acquiring similar properties. 



Now this is the peculiar character of all substances 

 which exert an action by virtue of their existing 

 condition, — of those bodies the elements of which 

 are in the state of decomposition or transposition ; a 

 state which is destroyed by boiling water and alco- 

 hol without the cause of the influence being imparted 

 to those liquids; for a state of action or power can- 

 not be preserved in a liquid. 



Sausages, in the state here described, exercise an 

 action upon the organism, in consequence of the 

 stomach and other parts with which they come in 

 contact not having the power to arrest their decom- 

 position ; and entering the blood in some way or 

 other, while still possessing their whole power, they 

 impart their peculiar action to the constituents of 

 that fluid. 



The poisonous properties of decayed sausages are 

 not destroyed by the stomach as those of the small- 

 pox virus are. All the substances in the body capa- 

 ble of putrefaction are gradually decomposed during 

 the course of the disease, and after death nothing 

 remains except fat, tendons, bones, and a few other 

 substances, which are incapable of putrefying in the 

 conditions afforded by the body. 



It is impossible to mistake the modus operandi of 

 this poison, for Colin has clearly proved that mus- 

 cle, urine, cheese, cerebral substance, and other 

 matters, in a state of putrefaction, communicate 

 their own state of decomposition to substances much 

 less prone to change of composition than the blood. 

 When placed in contact with a solution of sugar, 



