ON THE EFFECTS OF ACRID POISONS. 221 
rather than on the decline, and about three hours after the water 
had been given, I found him weak, inclined to remain quiet, and 
with the upper part of the abdomen remarkably swollen, whilst 
the lower was as much contracted. The efforts to vomit were 
less frequent. Though cheerful when noticed, he had become 
cool and languid. Judging that the lesion of the stomach had 
now arrived at its height, and that death was inevitable, I had 
the animal killed by a blow on the head. On examining the 
stomach and oesophagus they presented an appearance which 
has been well represented by C. J. Canton. The oesophagus 
was of bright red, but its cuticular lining was not detached; its 
parietes were very much thickened by infiltration with a colour¬ 
less fluid, constituting true inflammatory oedema, and bearing 
considerable resemblance to oedema of the glottis which is seen 
in man, except with respect to the redness and injection, which 
in oedema of the glottis in man are often wanting. The stomach 
was more intensely reddened than the oesophagus. It was dis¬ 
tended with a considerable quantity of transparent but ropy 
secretion, but its parietes were not much thickened. The red¬ 
ness was far more intense towards the cardiac extremity, where 
blood appeared to be extravasated as well as injected. Towards 
the pylorus the discolouration was comparatively trifling. 
The situation of the most intense effect produced by the irri¬ 
tation of hot water tends to confirm some observations which 
I have had occasion to make in examining the stomachs of per¬ 
sons poisoned by sulphuric acid, and leads me to offer a few 
remarks on 
The Inferences to be drawn from the Situation of the 'principal 
Lesion of the Stomach in Poisoning. 
In the cases to which I have alluded, the principal action of 
the boiling water and sulphuric acid were observed in the greater 
curvature immediately opposite the orifice of the oesophagus, 
rather than precisely at the cardiac extremity, where, in other 
cases, the most intense injection is generally met with. The 
repeated occurrence of this fact induces me to suppose, that 
when an intensely active agent, like the two which I have men¬ 
tioned, has been swallowed or forced into the stomach, it is, as 
it were, discharged against that part of the internal surface of 
the stomach which is immediately opposite the opening, and 
that upon this spot an almost instantaneous effect is produced, 
which is deeper and more intense than that which is afterwards 
produced on other parts of the mucous membrane, when the 
agent is diffused over them, lowered in its activity by the mucus, 
which is rapidly secreted, and which does not merely dilute the 
