388 
THE ACCIDENTAL INTRODUCTION OF AIR 
short a period of time. Desperate, however, as the case seemed 
to be, I did not abandon my patient. I dismissed all those who 
stood about, with the exception of one assistant. Persuaded 
that the loss of blood is always more or less favourable in such 
circumstances, I endeavoured to cause it to flow, although it 
was almost composed of spume alone. The abstraction of this 
little quantity of blood produced, as might be expected, no effect, 
and she fell at once, as if struck with lightning, at my feet. 
She lay at least ten minutes almost without motion, and I 
thought her dead : but she then began to struggle a little, and after 
several efforts raised herself. There she stood staggering and 
ready to fall again ; but her pulse was a little more developed, her 
respiration less difficult, and the membranes of a more healthy 
colour. Dry frictions were applied over the spinal region, and 
extending to all four extremities : these means seemed to produce 
a marked amelioration, but it was of short duration. At the ex- 
piration of half an hour she fell anew on the litter, and, after some 
useless efforts to raise herself, died. 
The pleural and pericardiac cavities contained a small quantity 
of coloured fluid. The lungs were emphysematous ; but this lesion 
appeared to be of long standing, and coeval with the cough. The 
heart was larger than natural. The right cavities contained a 
great quantity of black blood, in which were scattered many 
globules of air. The walls of these cavities, the fleshy columns, 
and the valves, were lined with transparent globules. The pul- 
monary artery, examined near its last ramifications, presented a 
spumy liquid. The left auricle and ventricle contained a little 
blood. There were the same appearances as in the right cavities, 
but the globules were not so numerous. 
The abdominal cavity contained from eight to ten pints of fluid 
of nearly the colour of blood. Many points of the peritoneum 
were covered with false membranes of recent formation. There 
were traces of considerable congestion through the whole extent 
of the colon, especially along its bands, until we arrive at the 
floating portion. A great quantity of blood, amounting to twelve 
or fourteen pounds, was effused in the membranes of that intestine, 
and gave them considerable thickness. The mucous membranes 
that lined the caecum and colon were thickened, and the contents 
of these two intestines were mixed with a great quantity of bloody 
fluid. 
The blood contained in the posterior vena cava was mingled 
with globules of air. A greater quantity was remarked in the 
mesenteric veins, where they seemed to be separated by columns 
of blood. The trunk of the vena porta and its divisions in the 
liver enclosed a bloody spume. The veins which ramified over 
