SULPHURIC ACID. 
§ 68 .] 
pale red, uneven, and crossed by cicatricial bands. In two parts, at 
the greater curvature, the mucous surface was strongly injected in a 
ring-like form, and in the middle of the ring was a deep funnel-shaped 
ulcer ; a part of the rest of the stomach was strongly injected and 
scattered over with numerous punctiform, small, transparent bladders. 
The gullet was contracted at the upper part (just below the epiglottis) 
from 20 to 22 mm. (-78 to -86 inch) in diameter ; it then gradually 
widened to measure about 12 mm. (-47 inch) at the diaphragm ; in 
the neighbourhood of the last contraction the tissue was scarred, injected, 
and ulcerated ; there were also small abscesses opening into this portion 
of the gullet. . 
E. Fraenkel and F. Reiclie 1 have studied the effects of sulphuric 
acid on the kidney. In rapid cases they find a widespread shedding 
of the epithelium in the convoluted and straight urinary canaliculi, 
with destruction of the kidney parenchyma, but no inflammation. 
§ 68. The museums of the different London hospitals afford excellent 
material for the study of the effects of sulphuric acid on the pharynx, 
gullet, and stomach ; and it may be a matter of convenience to students 
if the more typical examples at these different museums be noticed in 
detail, so that the preparations themselves may be referred to. 
In St Bartholomew’s Museum, No. 1942, is an example of excessive destruction 
of the stomach by sulphuric acid. The stomach is much contracted, and has a large 
aperture with ragged edges ; the mucous membrane is thickened, charred, and 
blackened. 
No. 1941, in the same museum, is the stomach of a person who died from a large 
dose cf sulphuric acid. When recent, it is described as of a deep red colour, mottled 
with black—appearances which, from long soaking in spirit, are not true at the 
present time ; but the rough, shaggy state of the mucous tissue can be traced ; the 
gullet and the pylorus appear the least affected. 
St George’s Hospital, ser. ix. 146, 11 and 43, e .—The pharynx and oesophagus of 
a man who was brought into the hospital in a state of collapse, after a large but 
unknown dose of sulphuric acid. The lips were much eroded, the mucous membrane 
of the stomach, pharynx, and oesophagus show an extraordinary shreddy condition ; 
the lining membrane of the stomach is much charred, and the action has extended to 
the duodenum ; the muscular coat is not affected. 
Guy’s Hospital, No. 1799.—A preparation showing the mucous membrane of the 
stomach entirely denuded. The organ looks like a piece of thin paper. 
No. 1799 20 .—The stomach of a woman who poisoned herself by drinking a wine- 
glassful of acid beforo breakfast. She lived eleven days. The main symptoms were 
vomiting and purging, but there was no complaint of pain. There is oxtonsivo 
destruction of mucous membrane along the lesser curvature and towards the pyloric 
extremity ; a portion of the mucous membrane is floating as a slough. 
No. 1799 2 ’ J is the gullet and stomach of a man who took about 3 drachms of the 
strong acid. He lived three days without much apparent suffering, and died un¬ 
expectedly. The lining membrane of the oesophagus has the longitudinal wrinkles 
or furrows so often, nay, almost constantly, met with in poisoning by the acids. The 
mucous tissue of the stomach is raised in cloudy ridges, and blackened. 
No. 1799 3;i is a wonderfully entire cast of the gullet from a woman who swallowed 
an ounce of sulphuric acid, and is said, according to the catalogue, to have recovered. 
1 Virchow’s Archiv, cxxxi. 130. 
1 
