95 



even in part destroyed, if we may believe Hunter, who found its inner 

 membrane destroyed in several points in the body of a criminal, \vhofor 

 some time before his execution, had been prevailed upon, in considera- 

 tion of a sum of money, to abstain from food*. 



The gastric juice is capable, even after death, of dissolving food intro- 

 duced into the stomach, by a wound made into it, provided the animal 

 still preserves some degree of animal heat. It acts on vegetable and ani- 

 mal substances triturated and put into a small vessel, such as those under 

 which Spallanzani, in his experiments on artificial digestion, kept up a 

 moderate heat. Let us not, however, consider as the same, this solution 



.at The following case of solution of the stomach after death came under the observa- 

 tion of Professor Haviland. The subject was a young- man whose body was opened 

 twelve hours after death, and the stomach, on being examined after its removal from 

 the body, presented the following appearances: The mucous membrane seemed more 

 red and vascular than usual throughout its whole extent, and here and 'there were 

 small spots of what seemed to be extravasated blood, lying beneath the mucous coat, 

 as they could not be washed oft, nor removed by the edge of the scalpel. There were 

 two holes in the stomach ; the larger very near to the cardiac end of the small curva- 

 ture, and on the posterior surface ; this was more than an inch in length, and about 

 half an inch in breadth The other, not far from the former, and likewise upon the 

 posterior surface, was about the size of a sixpence. The edges of these holes were 

 smooth, well defined, and slightly elevated. The coats of the stomach were thin in 

 many other spots, and in one part nothing was left but the peritoneum, the mucous 

 and muscular coats being entirely destroyed There was a hole in the diaphragm 

 through the muscular portion, where it is of considerable thickness, large enough to 

 admit the end of the finger. There was no appearance of ulceration or of pus adher- 

 ing to the edges of this perforation of the diaphragm. Dr. Haviland concludes, that, 

 owing to the activity of the solvent power of the gastric juice, it sometimes not only 

 corrodes the parietesof the stomach, but even the thick muscle of the diaphragm, and 



that within the space of twelve hours after death, as was exemplified in this case. 



Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , Vol. I. Pan II. 1S22. 



Hunter's view of this subject has been disputed, to the present day, by several emi- 

 nent pathologists ; but Dr. Philip's observations are qualified to prove it in a very satis- 

 factory manner to those who yet required uriore convincing arguments. On opening 

 the abdomen of rabbits which had been killed immediately after having eaten, and 

 which were allowed to lie undisturbed for some time before the examination, he has 

 found "the great end of the stomach soft, eaten through, sometimes altogether con- 

 sumed, the food being only covered by the peritoneum, or lying quite bare for the 

 space of an inch and a half in diameter; and part of the contiguous intestines, In the 

 last case, also consumed, while the cabbage, \\ hich the animal had just taken, lay in 

 the centre of the stomach unchanged, if we except the alteration which had taken 

 place in the external parts of the muss it had formed, in consequence of imbibing gas- 

 tric fluid from the half-digested food in contact with it." 



The following are Dr. Philip's observations : We sometimes found the great end 

 of the stomach dissolved within an hour and a half after death. It was more frequently 

 found so when the animal bad lam dead .for many hours. This effect does not always 

 ensue, however long it has kin dead. It seems only to take place when there happens 

 to be a greater than usual supply of gastric fluid ; for we always observed it most apt 

 to happen when the animal had eaten voraciously. 



Why it should take place without the food being digested, is evident from what 

 has been said. Soon after death, the motions of the stomach, which are constantly 

 carrying on towards the pylorus the most digested food, cease. Thus, the food which 

 lies next to the surface of the stomach, becoming fullv saturated with gastric fluic 

 neutralizes no more, and no new food being presented to it, it necessarilf acts on the 

 tomach itself, now deprived of life, and, on this account, as Mr. Hunter justly observes 

 equally subject to its action with other dead an-mal matter. It is remarkable that ti'e 

 gastric fluid of the rabbit, which in its natural state refuses animal food, should so com 

 pletely digest its own stomach as not to leave a trace of the parts acted on T never 



endi in ou ' erparts> "* intemal 



