24 O POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 299 . 
lesions found after death from phosphorus, for they vary according as to 
whether the death is speedy or prolonged, whether the phosphorus has 
been taken as a finely divided solid, or in the form of vapour, etc. It 
may, however, be shortly said, that the most common changes are fatty 
infiltration of the liver and kidneys, fatty degeneration of the heart, 
enlargement of the liver, ecchymoses in the serous membranes, in the 
muscular, in the fatty, and in the mucous tissues. When death occurs 
before jaundice supervenes, there may be little in the aspect of the 
corpse to raise a suspicion of poison ; but if intense jaundice has existed 
during life, the yellow staining of the skin, and it may be, spots of 
purpura, will suggest to the experienced pathologist the possibility of 
phosphorus poisoning. In the mouth and throat there will seldom be 
anything abnormal. In one or two cases of rapid death among infants, 
some traces of the matches which had been sucked were found clinging 
to the gums. The stomach may be healthy, but the most common 
appearance is a swelling of the mucous membrane and superficial 
erosions. Virchow, 1 who was the first to call attention to this peculiar 
grey swelling of the intestinal mucous membrane, under the name of 
gastritis glandularis or gastradenitis, shows that it is due to a fatty 
degeneration of the epithelial cells, and that it is by no means peculiar 
to phosphorus poisoning. The swelling may be seen in properly 
prepared sections to have its essential seat in the glands of the mucous 
membrane ; the glands are enlarged, their openings filled with large 
cells, and each single cell is finely granular. Little centres of hsemor- 
rhage, often microscopically small, are seen, and may be the centres of 
small inflammations ; their usual situation is on the summit of the 
rugae. Very similar changes are witnessed after death from septicaemia, 
pyaemia, diphtheria, and other diseases. The softening of the stomach, 
gangrene, and deep erosions, recorded by the earlier authors, have not 
been observed of late years, and probably were due to post-mortem 
changes, and not to processes during life. The same changes are to be 
seen in the intestines, and there are numerous extravasations in the 
peritoneum. 
The liver shows of all the organs the most characteristic signs ; a 
more or less advanced fatty infiltration of its structure takes place 
which was first described as caused by phosphorus by Hauff in I860. 2 
It is the most constant pathological evidence both in man and animal, 
and seems to occur at a very early period, Munk and Leyden having 
found a fatty degeneration in the liver far advanced in twenty-four 
hours 3 after poisoning. In rats and mice poisoned with paste, this 
1 Virchow’s Archiv f. path. Anat., Bd. xxxi. Hft. 3, 399. 
2 Hauff collected 12 cases, and found a fatty liver in 11.— Wiirtemb. Med. Corresp. 
131, 1860, No. 34. 
3 Die acute Phosphor-Vergiftuny, Berlin, 1865. 
