EMPHYSEMA OF THE LIVER. 
012 
tion, and the appearances which presented themselves are as 
follow : — 
The stomach did not contain the slightest particle of solid 
food, and only a very small quantity in a state of fluidity ; but 
was immensely distended with gas. Some bots were adhering, 
both to the cuticular and mucous linings ; but neither of these 
membranes were tinged with the slightest blush of inflammation. 
The spleen was very flaccid, and the smallest I ever saw. The 
duodenum appeared healthy; but the other small intestines were 
inflamed in patches, and their coat loose in texture, the mucous 
membrane shewing evident symptoms of disease. The caecum 
and colon were filled with a black fluid, in appearance and 
smell resembling the refuse of a gasometer, and in the large 
flexure of the colon I found several small pieces of coal and 
a piece of twisted iron wire. The rectum was inflamed towards 
its termination — neither the omentum, mesentery, nor peritoneum 
shewed any appearance of disease, and the kidnies were of 
their natural size, and healthy. 
Upon examining the liver, I found it diseased in a most extra- 
ordinary manner. At the posterior extremity of the right and 
left lobes were two tumours (one on each side) filled with a 
peculiar gelatinous kind of fluid. The liver itself was of a pale 
ashy colour; its texture much altered; and throughout its 
whole substance it was so completely filled with air, that, upon 
pressing it, a crackling noise was produced, as when the air 
insinuates itself between the skin and cellular membrane, as we 
frequently see from punctures at the point of the elbow, 8cc. It 
was so exceedingly light, that I have little doubt, had I thrown 
a part of it into a vessel containing water (which at the moment 
I did not think of doing), it would have floated upon the surface. 
The contents of the thorax were beautifully healthy. Neither 
the pleura nor lungs, nor any of the viscera situated in that 
cavity, shewing the slightest appearance of having been diseased. 
The trachea and bronchi were the same. 
We are not aware of any recorded case similar to that which 
Mr. Richardson describes. It is, however, easy to conceive of 
the occurrence of such an one. The liver consists of two sub- 
stances, distinct in their structure and function ; the one con- 
sisting of simple cellular texture, in the form of areolae or cells, 
and traversed by numerous vessels conveying various fluids ; the 
other is a vascular substance, deposited in these areolse, of a red 
colour in a healthy state — highly vascular — variable in quantity, 
and possessing considerable power of turgescence and contrac- 
