HYDROCHLORIC ACID. 
107 
§80.] 
thick ; the symptoms were similar to those detailed above, but more 
violent ; and in fourteen minutes from the commencement, the rabbit 
sank down on its right side (respirations 32). When twenty-two minutes 
had elapsed, the gas was again allowed to enter. The rabbit now lay 
quiet, with closed eyes and laboured respiration, and finally, after half 
an hour of intermittent exposure to the gas, the animal was removed. 
The cornese were opalescent, and the eyes filled with water ; there was 
frequent shaking of the head and working of the forepaws. After three 
minutes’ exposure to the air, the respirations were found to be 128 per 
minute ; this quickened respiration lasted for an hour, then gave place to 
a shorter and more superficial breathing. On the second day after the 
experiment, the rabbit suffered from laboured respiration (28 to the 
minute) and pain, and there was a rattling in the bronchial tubes. The 
animal died on the third day, death being preceded by slow respiration 
(12 to the minute). 
The appearances twenty-four hours after death were as follows :—The 
eyes were coated with a thick slime, and both corneae were opalescent ; 
there was strong rigidity of the body. The pia mater covering the brain 
was everywhere hyperaemic, and at the hinder border of both hemi¬ 
spheres appeared a small clot, surrounded by a thin layer of bloody fluid. 
The plex. venos. spin, was filled with coagulated blood, and there was also 
a thin extravasation of blood covering the medulla and pons. The lungs 
were mottled bright brown-red ; the middle lobe of the right lung was 
dark brown, solid, and sank in water ; the lower lobe of the same lung 
and the upper lobe of the left lung were nearly in a similar condition, 
but the edges were of a bright red. The parenchyma in the darker places 
on section did not crepitate. On the cut surface was a little dark, fluid, 
weakly acid blood ; the tracheal mucous membrane was injected. The 
heart was filled with thick coagulated blood ; the liver was congested, of 
a reddish-brown colour, and rich in dark, fluid blood : in the vena cava 
inferior was coagulated blood. The kidneys were,not hyperaemic ; the 
intestines were superficially congested. 
There can be little doubt that the symptoms during life, and the 
appearances after death, in this case are perfectly consistent with the 
following view :—The vapour acts first as a direct irritant, and is capable 
of exciting inflammation in the lung and bronchial tissues ; but besides 
this, there is a secondary effect, only occurring when the gas is in sufficient 
quantity, and the action sufficiently prolonged—viz., a direct coagulation 
of the blood in certain points of the living vessels of the lungs. The 
consequence of this is a more or less general backward engorgement, the 
right side of the heart becomes distended with blood, and the ultimate 
cause of death is partly mechanical. The hyperaemia of the brain mem¬ 
branes, and even the haemorrhages, are quite consistent with this view, 
and occur in cases where the obstruction to the circulation is of a 
