CAUSE OF CERTAIN MORBID PHENOMENA. *259 
can no longer stand — he is continually but fruitlessly endeavouring 
to rise. He died at two o’clock in the afternoon. 
Post-mortem examination twenty-four hours after death . — 
Thorax : On opening the thoracic cavity, the lungs did not in the 
slightest degree sink. They were hard, resisting the pressure of 
the fingers, and, externally, of a deep brown hue. 
Being detached with the heart from the thorax, and carefully 
examined, they presented on each side of the superior portion of 
them the proper and normal appearance ; but below, both of the 
lobes of the lungs had undergone a complete change. They were 
of a grey, leaden hue ; and when pressed upon, reminded us of the 
firmness and resistance of the liver. 
On cutting into their substance, they presented that remarkable 
black and white marbled appearance which characterizes the dis- 
eases of the lungs, so improperly — I repeat it — designated by the 
name of gangrenous pneumonia. These black and white spots are 
not, in reality, as MM. Reuault and Delafond have proved, any 
thing more than the fibrous and cruoric parts of the blood, sepa- 
rated in the cellular tissue of the lung, and so combined w r ith that 
tissue, that they resist all inflammatory reaction on its part, and 
macerate it in the midst of their putrid deliquescence, when, under 
the influence of air and moisture, they become softened and putre- 
fied. Here and there, in the midst of these black and white clots, 
there were cavities of the size of a nut, the walls of which were 
formed by the pulmonary tissue, combined with the fibrous matter 
of the blood, and which contained some pus in its natural state. 
In some places the pulmonary tissue was already decomposed, and 
diffused an odour characteristic of gangrene of the lungs. 
The heart was soft, flabby, and discoloured. The blood contained 
in the interior of its cavities, especially in those on the right side, 
was black, liquefied, and having the appearance of pitch. Globules 
of some oily substance were also seen floating on its surface. The 
internal membrane of its cavities, and of the large vessels belonging 
to it, were stained of a deep red colour. The organs of the abdomi- 
nal cavity had not undergone any change essentially referrible to 
themselves. The colour which some of them had assumed was to 
be traced to the altered condition of the blood : thus the liver was 
pale, soft, and friable ; the spleen was a little tumefied and 
softened, and, being pressed or scraped, was easily reducible to the 
consistence of black mud. The enormous tumour on the chest was 
formed by an infiltration of yellow serosity into the cellular tissue. 
Not a single superficial lymphatic appeared to be engorged — not a 
vein presented the slightest trace of inflammation. 
[To be continued.] 
