g 6 poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 67. 
escaping into the cavity of the abdomen. The peritoneum was also 
blackened as if burnt ; probably there had been perforation of the 
stomach during life ; the mucous membrane of the duodenum was 
swollen, hardened, and looked as if it had been boiled ; while the blood 
was of a cherry-red colour, and of the consistence of a thin syrup. The 
rest of the organs were healthy. A chemical research on the fluid which 
had been collected from the stomach, gullet, and duodenum showed 
that it contained 87*25 grains of free sulphuric acid. 1 
This is, perhaps, the most extreme case of destruction on record ; 
the cause of the unusually violent action is referable to the acid acting 
on an empty stomach. It is important to note that even with this 
extensive destruction of the stomach, life was prolonged for two hours. 
The case selected to serve as a type of a chronic but fatal illness 
produced from poisoning by sulphuric acid is one related by Oscar 
Wyss. A cook, 34 years of age, who had suffered many ailments, 
drank, on the 6th of November 1867, by mistake, at 8 o’clock in the 
morning, two mouthfuls of a mixture of 1 part of sulphuric acid and 
4 of water. Pain in the stomach and neck, and vomiting of black 
masses, were the immediate symptoms, and two hours later he was 
admitted into the hospital in a state of collapse, with cold extremities, 
cyanosis of the face, etc. Copious draughts of milk were given, and 
the patient vomited much, the vomit still consisting of black pultaceous 
matters, in which, on a microscopical examination, could be readily 
detected columnar epithelium of the stomach and mucous tissue elements. 
The urine was of specific gravity 1*033, non-albuminous ; on analysis 
it contained 3*388 grms. of combined sulphuric acid. 
On the second day there was some improvement in the symptoms ; 
the urine contained 1*276 grm. of combined sulphuric acid ; on the 
third day 2*665 grms. of combined sulphuric acid ; and on the tenth 
day the patient vomited up a complete cast of the mucous membrane 
of the gullet. The patient remained in the hospital, and became 
gradually weaker from stricture of the gullet and impairment of the 
digestive powers, and died, two months after taking the poison, on the 
5th of January 1868. 
The stomach was found small, contracted, with many adhesions to 
the pancreas and liver ; it was about 12 centimetres long (4*7 inches), 
and from 2 to 2*5 centimetres (*7 to *9 inch) broad, contracted to some¬ 
what the form of a cat’s intestine ; there were several transverse rugae ; 
the walls were thickened at the small curvature, measurements giving 
5 mm. (-19 inch) in the middle, and beyond about 2*75 mm. (-11 inch) ; 
in the upper two-thirds the lumen was so contracted as scarcely to 
admit the point of the little finger. The inner surface was covered 
with a layer of pus, with no trace of mucous tissue, and was everywhere 
1 Casper, vol. ii., case 194. 
