PART I.] 



General Summary of Experim-ental Results. 



131 



operation, and all, whether they died or were killed, presented the same marked 

 lesion at the autopsy, with two exceptions — one, a dog into whose peritoneum 

 an ounce of fresh peritonitic fluid had been injected without producing any 

 special symptom during life or any lesion evident after death ; the other a case in 

 which the injected material consisted of a solution of choleraic discharge. 



A Table showing the number of experiments in which decomposing 

 oi^ganic solutions were introduced into the peritoneal cavity, 

 the mortality, and the principal lesions produced. 



As in the previous series of experiments with decomposing organic solutions, so 

 in this, the most prominent and constant post-mortem phenomenon observed was the 

 affection of the mucous surface of the small intestines. The lesion, however, appeared 

 to us to be of a very different nature ; in fact, the mucous membrane itself was not 

 in a single instance materially affected, but a sanguineous exudation had taken place 

 giving the tube of the gut a more or less evenly distributed coating, which, when 

 carefully peeled off with a forceps, left the mucous surface and its epithelial lining 

 intact. This matter was on each occasion very carefully looked into ; and the substance 

 exuded, as well as the base upon which it was spread, were subjected to careful 

 microscopic examination. The former consisted, almost entirely, of altered blood 

 elements, blood-crystals, etc., but no entire red corpuscle could be detected, whereas 

 the mucous surface over which it was spread consisted of the unaltered structures 

 belonging to the part. 



In two cases in which the intestines were particularly congested, a loop of the 

 gut was tied whilst the animal was still alive but under chloroform, and luke-warm 

 water injected into the ligatured portion in one case, and salt-and-water in the other, 

 the gut in both cases being returned into the abdomen, and chloroform being continued 

 for an hour. When subsequently examined it was found that no absorption had taken 

 place, but the fluid had so macerated the mucous membrane, that the epithelium had 



