222 FIFTH REPORT— 1835. 
noxious agents but in some degree protects the membrane. The 
fact that the spot which I have now pointed out is not precisely 
that at which the highest degree of vascularity is generally met 
with, may induce us to regard the discovery of a morbid ap¬ 
pearance at that spot as a ground of suspicion that some fluid 
capable of producing an immediate effect has been received into 
the stomach. Even when the noxious agents received into the 
stomach do not produce the immediate effect which I have 
noticed in the case of boiling water and. sulphuric acid, some 
inferences may be drawn from the situation of the morbid ap¬ 
pearances. If the poison have been taken in the solid form, as, 
for example, when arsenic has been taken in substance, strongly 
marked effects will be produced at those particular spots on 
which the poison has lain, whilst the intervening portions either 
escape, or exhibit much less striking effects. If, on the other 
hand, the poison be taken in solution, and be not sufficiently 
intense at once to destroy the power of the stomach, its effects 
will be found most conspicuous in those parts which, under 
other circumstances, are the most frequent seat of injection, 
namely, the cardiac extremity, or even the whole cardiac half 
and the summits of the rugae. In fact, the inflammation of the 
stomach produced by an irritating poison in a fluid form, and 
not acting immediately as an escharotic, appears to resemble 
that which takes place in the mucous membrane of the alimen¬ 
tary canal when no poison has been taken. At least the prin¬ 
cipal difference appears to exist in the superior intensity of the 
appearances which are occasionally observed in cases of poison¬ 
ing. It is perfectly consistent with this remark, that we not 
only find the rugee of the stomach reddened, especially at their 
summits, but also the edges of the valvulse conniventes most 
intensely injected wdien the effect of the poison is continued into 
the small intestines. In the horses which I have had poisoned 
the orifices of the biliary and pancreatic ducts, which are marked 
by slight projection on the internal surface of the duodenum, 
were similarly reddened. The wax model of the stomach of a 
horse poisoned by corrosive sublimate given in solution, exhibits 
in a well-marked degree the effects of a fluid acrid poison ; it is 
also worthy of attention that it is not merely the summits of the 
larger elevations, such as the rugae of the stomach and the pro¬ 
jecting orifices of the ducts, which become conspicuous by their 
superior injection, the summits of those smaller elevations to 
which I have called particular attention in describing the charac¬ 
ter of the internal surface of the stomach sometimes become 
similarly distinguished. 
There is one circumstance in connexion with the redness and 
