PART i.~] Ejects of Injecting a Decomposing Choleraic Evacuation. 117 



The stomach contained about ten ounces of glairy fluid, its mucous surface 

 appeared to be perfectly healthy, there were no points of extravasation present, and 

 the vessels were not injected. The duodenum also appeared to be healthy and contained 

 some bilious fluid. The mucous membrane of the jejunum was coated with a dark 

 layer of what appeared to be inspissated blood. This layer became more and more 

 marked lower down, and attained its maximum development in the ileum, where it 

 was of the consistence of treacle and of a dark tarry colour. This dark layer could 

 be pealed oflf the surface of the mucous membrane, leaving the latter dry, but otherwise 

 quite healthy in appearance. The tarry coating ceased abruptly about a foot above 

 the ileo-coecal valve and was replaced by one composed of the common, whitish, 

 gelatinous mucus normally lining the intestines in dogs. The mucous membrane 

 here also appeared quite healthy, and there was neither extravasation nor any evidences 

 of detachment of epithelium present. The walls of the lower extremity of the ileum 

 and those of the appendix vermiformis were considerably thickened. The large intestine 

 appeared healthy internally. 



The tarry and pale mucous coatings on the interior of the small intestine, 

 together with the subjacent layers of the mucous membrane, were subjected to careful 

 microscopic examination. The tarry layer consisted of a gelatinous, molecular, more 

 or less fibrillated basis identical in appearance with that of the normal flakes of 

 intestinal mucus. In, and on this, were innumerable blood-crystals, a few indistinct 

 bioplastic masses and various particles of intestinal contents together with large 

 numbers of ova. Not a single red blood-corpuscle was visible in spite of the extreme 

 profusion of blood-crystals, and the distinct sanguineous hue, that even the thinnest 

 layers, into which the material could be spread out, retained. The whitish-grey 

 coating, replacing the former one at the lower end of the ileum, was identical in 

 appearance and structure with it, minus the red colour and the abundant blood- 

 crystals, and was, in reality, what it appeared to be at first sight, namely, the normal 

 thick mucus of the gut. 



The material scraped from the mucous surfaces beneath these layers consisted 

 entirely of distinct cylindrical epithelial cells and of detached villi, many of which 

 showed their epithelial coating firmly and evenly attached, even after the violence 

 to which they had been subjected. 



There was not the slightest resemblance between the microscopic characters of 

 this layer and those of the superincumbent one, whether the latter were of normal 

 aspect as at the lower end of the ileum, or deeply blood-stained and tarry as 

 farther up. 



The liver was dark in colour and very full of blood, but no farther change could 

 be detected in it. The remaining abdominal organs were congested, but no special 

 lesion could be detected in any of them. The bladder was full of urine. 



On opening the thorax, the pleural cavities were found to be free from fluid. 

 The lungs were collapsed and healthy in texture. The heart was healthy, the right 



