ON THE EFFECTS OF ACRID POISONS- 
223 
injection of the mucous membrane of the stomach which ap¬ 
pears to me to be worthy of attention, as affording in some in¬ 
stances a ground of distinction between the effects of decided 
inflammation and mere congestion. As far as I am aware, it 
has never been particularly pointed out. When an intense and 
diffused inflammation of the mucous membrane has been excited, 
the membrane is liable to be not only reddened by injection 
and thickened by the afflux of fluids to it, but an interstitial 
deposit of lymph seems to take place, which produces the ap¬ 
pearances of small irregular opake whitish spots in the sub¬ 
stance of the membrane itself. I do not know that I can better 
describe the appearance which I wish to point out than by a 
simple comparison. In thinnish gruel, prepared with oatmeal, 
we have a translucent viscid fluid, through which small opake 
whitish particles are diffused. Let us suppose the translucent 
fluid to be coloured by lake, or some other suitable pigment 
which does not destroy translucence, and the appearance to 
which I allude may be readily conceived. In cases of simple 
congestion, such as are produced by affections of the heart or 
other causes disturbing the circulation, and in cases of great ir¬ 
ritation without the deposition of lymph interstitially, we may 
have redness and injection to a great degree of intensity, but 
without the accompanying irregular opake spots in the sub¬ 
stance of the mucous membrane. 
The appearance which I have just described was very con¬ 
spicuous in the stomach of a man who had poisoned himself 
with hydrocyanic acid. Of the strength and quantity of the 
, poison which he had taken I am unable to speak. It produced 
speedy, but not immediate, death. The inspection was not 
made by myself, but the stomach very shortly after its removal 
from the body was brought to Guy's Hospital, and the appear¬ 
ances which it presented were carefully copied by the very ac¬ 
curate pencil of C. J. Canton. At the same time I must ob¬ 
serve that the appearance in question is so intimately connected 
with the structure of the membrane as to render a perfect de¬ 
lineation almost impossible. Similar, but rather less conspicu¬ 
ous, interstitial opake spots were observed in the stomach of 
an elderly person who had taken arsenic. This stomach was, 
like the former, not met with in one of my own inspections, but 
was brought to me some hours after its removal by an able 
anatomist, who had conducted the examination. This circum¬ 
stance, as well as that of the arsenic having been taken, as it 
was supposed, in fluid form, may account for the absence of 
some of the other appearances which are often, and perhaps 
