ARSENIC. 
§ 760.] 
layer of from 1 to 1| mm. wide of a transparent, frog-spawn-like jelly 
streaking the intestine. In later stages it becomes thicker, while 
occasionally it resembles a diphtheritic exudation. The mucous 
membrane itself is deep purple-red, showing up by the side of the 
pseudo-membrane. With regard to the villi, the epithelial layer is 
detached, and the capillary network filled with blood and enlarged. 
The Liver. —Hugo met only occasionally with fatty degeneration of 
the liver, but there was marked steatosis of the epithelium of the gall¬ 
bladder of dogs. A fact not prominently noticed before is (at all events, 
in dogs) a serous transudation into the pleural sac and oedema of 
the lungs ; the exudation may be excessive, so that more than 100 c.c, 
of serous fluid can be obtained from the thorax ; there is also usually 
much fluid in the pericardium. In two of Hugo’s experiments there 
was fluid in the cerebral ventricles ; and in all there was increased 
moisture of the brain substance, with injection of the capillary vessels, 
especially of the pia. 
§ 760. Post-mortem Appearances in Man. —A remarkable preserva¬ 
tion of the body is commonly, but not constantly, observed. When it 
does occur it may have great significance, particularly when the body is 
placed under conditions in which it might be expected to decompose 
rapidly. In the celebrated Continental case of the apothecary Speichert 
(1876), the body of Speichert’s wife was exhumed eleven months after 
death. The coffin stood partly in water, the corpse was mummified. 
The organs contained arsenic, the churchyard earth no arsenic. R. 
Koch was unable to explain the preservation of the body, under these 
conditions, in any other way than from the effect of arsenic ; and this 
circumstance, with others, was an important element which led to the 
conviction of Speichert. 
When arsenious acid is swallowed in substance or solution, the most 
marked change is that in the mucous membrane of the stomach and 
intestines ; and even when the poison has been absorbed by the skin 
or taken in any other way, there may be a very pronounced inflammatory 
action. On the other hand, this is occasionally absent. Orfila 1 relates 
a case in which a man died in thirteen hours after having taken 12 grms. 
of arsenious acid :—“ The mucous membrane of the stomach presented 
in its whole extent no trace of inflammation, no redness, and no altera¬ 
tion of texture.” Many other similar cases are on record ; and, according 
to Harvey’s statistics, in 197 cases, 36 (about 18-2 per cent.) presented 
no lesion of the stomach. 
The usual changes produced by arsenious acid may be studied in 
the museums of the London hospitals. In Guy’s Hospital Museum 
there are three preparations. In preparation 1798 32 is seen a large 
stomach with the mucous membrane at certain points abraded, and at 
1 Tome i. Obs. v. 
