INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 231 



came ill with a gastro-enteric catarrh, presumably located 

 mainly in the caecum. On the third day after the illness 

 there suddenly occurred a severe seizure of vomiting 

 accompanied with an intense odor of hydrogen sulphide. 

 Simultaneously the patient suffered from dizziness and 

 a little later passed into a state of collapse without 

 loss of consciousness, the eruction of gas continuing mean- 

 time. The first urine passed gave a definite reaction for 

 hydrogen sulphide. On the following day the patient 

 recovered. Other somewhat similar instances have been 

 described by Betz, 1 Stefanio, and Emminghaus. 2 Among 

 the symptoms that have been met with in such cases 

 there have been prominent those pointing to disordered 

 function of the central nervous system, including head- 

 ache, dizziness, delirium, mental depression, drowsiness, 

 stupor, and collapse. Somewhat similar manifestations 

 have been observed in experimental poisoning by 

 hydrogen sulphide in animals and men. 3 The nervous 

 symptoms observed under these conditions have fre- 

 quently been more severe than those arising in sponta- 

 neous hydrothionsemia, probably because the quantity 

 of gas absorbed is greater in the former cases. Appar- 

 ently somewhat at variance with the results of poisoning 

 in dogs is the statement that many persons subjected 



lU Ueber Hydro thionammoniaemie, " Memorabilien, Ix, p. 145, 

 1864. 



2 "Zwei Falle von mehrfacher Perforation des Verdauungs- 

 kanals und H 2 S-Gehalt im Urin," Berl. klin. Wochenschr., ix, pp. 

 477 and 491, 1872. 



3 See especially K. B. Lehmann, " Experimentalle Studie liber 

 den Einfluss technisch und hygienisch wichtiger Gase und Dampfe 

 auf den Organismus," Archiv /. Hyg., xiv, p. 135, 1892. 



