VOL. XXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 81 



Dr. M. supposed was a principal complaint, he took, by the advice of a physi- 

 cian, several ounces of crude mercury, at different ti(nes, without any relief, 

 and at length he died. 



On opening the abdomen, which was very much distended, there burst forth 

 a great quantity of wind, though the guts and stomach were not wounded. 

 The stomach was empty ; and the inner coat was very much inflamed from one 

 end to the other. In several places of the small guts, there were scattered 

 grains of crude mercury, and along with them generally a black gritty powder, 

 very like ^Ethiops mineral, which was doubtless the mercury changed into that 

 consistence. 



The colon was distended, at its origin, to twice the thickness of an ordinary 

 man's arm about the shoulder. This extraordinary thickness extended to about 

 the length of 10 or J 2 inches ; from hence it gradually decreased, and where it 

 was attached to the stomach, it was not above a third part of that size. It was 

 much inflamed at its origin, and contained at least 6 quarts of liquid excrement, 

 in which was observed crude mercury, as also some of the black powder above- 

 mentioned. 



The colon, where it parted from the stomach, and diverged towards the left 

 kidney, adhered about the space of 3 inches to the omentum ; and on sepa- 

 rating the adhesion, there was found an abscess and inflammation, which had 

 communicated to those parts of the ileon, contiguous to the colon. The colon 

 had in this place a perforation, about f of an inch in diameter, and 4 smaller 

 perforations, about the size of a goose quill, through which some excrement 

 had passed into the abdomen. 



The coats of the colon, as it approached the intestinum rectum, became 

 scirrhous, about the space of 6 inches, and the capacity was gradually smaller. 

 The valves of the colon about this place were of a reddish colour, and were 

 more scirrhous than the other parts of the intestine. The coats of the colon, 

 where it was continued to the rectum, were at least half an inch thick, and its 

 capacity was not above the fourth part of the natural size. 



On cutting the gut horizontally hereabouts, there was perceived a body 

 which stopped the passage, and seemed to the touch almost of a cartilaginous 

 consistence. Having opened the gut lengthwise, it was found that it was no 

 more than 2 of the valvulse conniventes coli become scirrhous, and which pro- 

 truded downward into the rectum. 



There was also found a small plum-stone in this place, which was quite 

 buried in the tunica villosa, and had made itself a bed between the coats of the 

 rectum. It had formed a small abscess, which discharged into the cavity of the 

 pelvis ; but it had no communication with the cavity of the rectum. .. 



VOL. VIII, M 



