21 5 
on the Action of Poisons on the Animal System. 
mation of the oesophagus. The inflammation is greater in 
degree, and more speedy in taking place, when arsenic is 
applied to a wound, than when it is taken into the stomach. 
The inflamed parts are in general universally red, at other 
times they are red only in spots. The principal vessels lead- 
ing to the stomach and intestines are turgid with blood ; but 
the inflammation is usually confined to the mucous membrane 
of these viscera, which assumes a florid red colour, becomes 
soft and pulpy, and is separable without much difficulty from 
the cellular coat, which has its natural appearance. In some 
instances there are small spots of extravasated blood on the 
inner surface of the mucous membrane, or between it and the 
cellular coat, and this occurs independently of vomiting. I 
have never, in any of my experiments, found ulceration or 
sloughing of the stomach or intestine ; but if the animal sur- 
vives for a certain length of time, after the inflammation has 
begun, it is reasonable to conclude that it may terminate in 
one or other of these ways. 
I am diposed to believe that sloughing is very seldom, if ever, 
the direct consequence of the application of arsenic to the 
stomach or intestines. Arsenic applied to an ulcer will occa- 
sion a slough ; but its action in doing this is very slow. When 
I have applied the white oxide of arsenic to a wound, though 
the animal has sometimes lived three or four hours afterwards, 
and though violent inflammation has taken place in the sto- 
mach and intestines, I have never seen any preternatural ap- 
pearance in the part to which it was applied, except a slight 
effusion of serum into the cellular membrane. Arsenic speedily 
produces a very copious secretion of mucus and watery fluid 
from the stomach and intestines, which separates it from actual 
