ON THE EFFECTS OF ACRID POISONS. 
233 
in thirty-eight minutes he appeared to be dead, but he afterwards vomited 
a thick slimy fluid smelling strongly of alcohol, and died in forty-two 
minutes. Circumstances prevented the examination from taking place 
till the following day, when the stomach presented an appearance which 
is well represented by C. J. Canton. The mucous membrane of the 
stomach offered strongly marked and irregular rugae in the intervals be¬ 
tween which the mucous membrane had a corrugated appearance. It was 
universally of a reddish brown colour, which, however, was not univer¬ 
sally intense. Since making this experiment I have learnt that strikingly 
similar effects were produced by the exhibition of strong spirit in an ex¬ 
periment performed by my friend and colleague Dr. Roupell, the result of 
which he has shown in the second of his splendid fasciculi. The brighter 
colour produced in Dr. Roupell’s experiment is probably a more genuine 
effect of alcohol than the browner colour which I obtained, and which 
may have been in part occasioned by some cadaveric change. There 
can belittle doubt that the extreme effect of ardent spirit in these cases, 
in which it acted as one of the most prompt of the acrid poisons, is only 
an exaggeration of that diffused and pernicious irritation of the mucous 
membrane of the stomach which spirit-drinkers are constantly keeping 
up or renewing. 
