PHOSPHORUS AS A POISON. 
403 
Spleen not enlarged, but unusually dark in colour. Abdo- 
minal cavity contained about two or three tea-spoonfuls of 
serum. Lower part of oesophagus covered with a thick layer 
of mucus. The intestines felt hard, like a cord, under the 
finger. On opening the stomach, which was half contracted, 
there was an escape of white fumes having the odour of 
garlic. The stomach contained nothing more than about two 
tea-spoonfuls of mucus; it was lined with a thick layer of 
tenacious yellow mucus, about one eighth of an inch thick. 
No ulceration of the mucous membrane existed, but some 
congestion at the middle and pyloric end of the stomach. 
Throughout the whole extent of the small intestines there 
was a very thick layer of yellow mucus ; no contents. The 
rectum alone contained faecal ma ter, which was of a greenish 
colour, not blue like the poison that had been administered. 
The vessels of the brain and spinal cord were slightly con- 
gested ; the nervous centres were otherwise quite healthy. 
“On a subsequent occasion I gave forty-five grains of 
phosphor paste to a full-grown fowl, together with two 
grains of solid phosphorus. Twenty-four hours afterwards it 
seemed well, and ate its food as if not in the least affected by 
the poison, but six hours later I found it quite dead, though 
warm; the muscles of the back, breast, and legs were quite 
rigid. 
“On post-mortem examination no marks of internal in- 
flammation were found. The crop was full of food, and lined 
with a thick, brownish-yellow, viscid mucus, and had a 
strong odour of garlic. On opening the folds of the gizzard, 
white fumes escaped in considerable quantity. The small 
intestines appeared contracted, and lined with a thick coat of 
mucus similar to that in the crop, and which, in fact, formed 
the whole of their contents; but the large intestines were, as 
in the case of the cat, full of hard, green, feculent matter. 
In order to discover if much of the poison remained in the 
tissues of the fowl, I fed two full-grown cats with the heart, 
lungs, liver, and gizzard, during two days. At first they 
appeared to suffer no inconvenience from the food, but after 
remaining apparently quite well during eight days, one of 
the cats manifested symptoms of acute pain, which were 
rapidly followed by convulsions. The convulsions con- 
tinued more or less strong until it died, four hours and a 
half after the first symptoms of poisoning presented them- 
selves. The other cat, which had escaped from its place of 
confinement, was next day found dead in a state of extreme 
rigor mortis. On a post-mortem examination being made, 
both animals were found to present very similar appearances. 
