644 A CASK OF CONTUSED WOUND IN THE HOUSE 
against. The halter often served to support him ; and when he had 
succeeded in discovering this resting-place he used it for a long 
time. His limbs bent under him. The skin was moist and cold — 
the respiration quick, often prolonged, agitated and irregular — the 
nostrils dilated. The mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, and 
the eyes, which I now examined for the first time, were of a pale 
violet colour — the pulse was very quick, and scarcely perceptible. 
The belly was more distended than when I had quitted my 
patient on the preceding evening. I attributed this to an aug- 
mentation of fluid in the abdomen, and that with the more reason, 
as the horse had dunged abundantly during the night. 
1 wished to make myself certain, and, accordingly, untied the 
thread which supported the middle and superior pledgets. The 
wound immediately opened, and about half a pint of a bloody 
fluid ran out, of a deep hue, and yet which scarcely coloured the 
fingers. It had the smell of blood which had begun to putrefy. 
This quantity of liquid was immediately replaced by the entrance 
of air into the abdomen, and the sound produced by the entry 
and emission of the air recommenced as on the former evening. 
I tried to get rid of as much liquid as possible by pressing the 
abdominal parietes; but in spite of all my efforts a great quantity 
still remained in the abdominal cavity. 
This state of the patient made me apprehend the worst conse- 
quences. That which gave me the most uneasiness was the 
presence of the air, and of a great quantity of liquid, already in a 
state of putrefaction, in the peritoneal cavity. The last circum- 
stance appeared to me to be particularly dangerous ; for I had 
frequently produced death by injecting into the abdomen or the 
chest blood had been taken some time from an animal, or which 
had begun to putrefy ; and 1 had remarked that these accidents 
were always more serious and quicker when I suffered the air to 
penetrate while performing the injection, or when I had established 
even a momentary communication between the atmosphere and 
the cavity. I did not at all fear the influence of pure and living 
blood, such as that which flowed directly from, a vessel in the 
abdominal cavity, and which had not been exposed to any putre- 
fying cause, because experience had taught me that when I in- 
jected into the abdomen or chest considerable quantities of blood 
which, but an instant before, I had drawn from the jugular, I 
seldom caused any inconvenience, but the subject on which I 
tried the experiment seemed to digest this new species of aliment 
admirably. 
I had, therefore, much reason to try to get rid either of the 
whole or of a part of the influences which l regarded as most 
dangerous; namely, first, the presence of putrefied fluid in the 
