212 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTONS. [aNNO 1/27. 



inarksmen, with their guns they kill abundance of wild game, both to help to 

 support their families, and sell to buy themselves necessaries. 



They are very ignorant about Christianity, by reason of their great distance 

 from any towns : yet though they seem so ignorant and barbarous, it is very 

 rare that they are guilty of any considerable crime. 



Of a preiernalural Perforalion in the upper Part of the Stomach. By 

 Mr. Christopher Rawlinson, Surgeon. N° 400, p. 36l. 



One James Skidmore had complained, for 3 or 4 years, of a violent pain in 

 his stomach and bowels, never being able to rest in his bed at night, until he 

 had vomited up the greatest part of what he had eaten or drank the day before. 

 He would often compare his pain to some great weight lying on the region 

 of the stomach, which he in some measure alleviated, by pressing hard with 

 his hand on that part. When he turned himself in bed from one side to the 

 other, he said he could plainly perceive that some fluid or other fell down with 

 noise to the depending side; which fluid he believed to be the occasion of all 

 his misery; for which reason he often said, he would willingly consent, nay, 

 often earnestly pressed, that the surgeons would cut him open, as he expressed 

 it, and let it out. 



He had no apparent tumour on the part, nor was his belly more extended 

 than usual. He had the advice of several able physicians before he came into 

 the hospital, but to no purpose. On opening him after his death, as soon 

 as we had penetrated the peritonaeum, there flowed out a whitish liquor, re- 

 sembling whey, only a little more thick and faeculent; nor did it emit so 

 noisome a smell as might be expected from its long residence in that place. 

 Above 4 quarts of this liquor were contained in the cavity of the abdomen. 



The stomach was perforated in its upper part, about the middle space between 

 the 1 orifices, wide enough to contain the end of one's finger. Cutting it 

 open lengthwise, it was pretty full of a thick glutinous matter, inclining to 

 yellow ; and to its inner coat, on the lower side, there firmly adhered the stone 

 of a prune, or some other fruit resembling it. On its inside, near the preter- 

 natural perforation, it was gangrened for 2 or 3 inches ; and on the other side 

 of the perforation there was an ulcer near the same size. The whole stomach 

 was a great deal thicker tlian usual ; but that part next the pylorus was above 

 4 times thicker than in a natural state. It adhered closely to all the parts 

 about it ; and to the pancreas it was so firmly tied down, that it could not be 

 separated without tearing. The spleen did not exceed \ oz, in weight. The 

 pancreas was scirrhous, though pretty near its natural size. In the liver and 



