FIFTH REFORT— -1835. 
PAS 
to be more decidedly the effect of destructive solution. The 
edges were somewhat reduced in thickness. In some instances 
the mucous membrane was only rendered thin, in others wholly 
removed^ and in the most advanced, the submucous cellular 
membrane was more or less removed, and the subjacent coat 
exposed. The surrounding cellular membrane, however, retained 
its healthy character, and allowed the free movement of the 
raucous membrane upon the subjacent coat, furnishing an addi¬ 
tional argument against the inflammatory origin of the appear¬ 
ance which I have been describing. The exposed cellular mem¬ 
brane was generally of a pale almost milk-white colour, resem¬ 
bling that which is met with in the more extensive softenings 
of the stomach by the action of its own secretion. 
1 conceive that the appearance which I have thus described 
must have been occasioned by the operation of the follicular 
secretion. It may have commenced before death, but the 
symptoms of the case did not seem to warrant this idea, unless 
it were almost during the agony. The only difficulty seems to 
consist in the solvent process being confined to such limited 
spots, but this may perhaps be accounted for by the dissolving 
follicular secretion existing only in small quantity, though of 
intense quality, and, perhaps, on the membrane in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the follicles having undergone some change by 
which it was rendered more susceptible of the influence of their 
secretion. 
Since I have been engaged in the experiments which the re¬ 
quest of the British Association has rendered necessary, I 
have met in the course of one of them with some appearances 
in the stomach of a dog which I regard as still further evidence 
in favour of the view which 1 have been laying before you. A 
dog was poisoned with oxalic acid in order to observe the pecu¬ 
liarities produced by this agent. In addition to other appear¬ 
ances which I shall have hereafter to notice, I observed numer¬ 
ous minute opake white spots, which I could imagine to be 
nothing else than follicles which had become preternaturally 
conspicuous amidst the surrounding altered mucous membrane*. 
When we consider the great variety of appearances which the 
mucous membrane of the stomach may present independently 
* I have since on two or three occasions met with the like appearance in the 
human stomach. The distribution of the minute whitish spots resembling that 
which was observed in the other appearances referred to a follicular apparatus; 
and the evident difference between these spots, and the granular or mammillar 
elevations before alluded to, and which were likewise strongly marked in one of 
these cases, afford considerable confirmation to the view which I have offered. 
