582 POISONS I THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 760 . 
the great curvature the whole coats are thinned ; it is also somewhat 
congested. In preparation 1798 64 is a portion of coagulated lymph, 
from the stomach of a lad, aged 14, who had taken accidentally a piece 
of cheese charged with arsenious acid, prepared for the purpose of 
destroying rats. He lived twenty-eight hours, and presented the 
ordinary symptoms. The lymph has a membranous appearance, and 
the rugse of the stomach are impressed upon it. It is said when recent 
to have presented numerous bright bloody spots, although there was no 
visible breach of substance on the surface of the stomach. The mucous 
membrane of the stomach is stated to have been injected, and there was 
also diffuse injection of the duodenum. Preparation 1798 80 is the 
stomach of a person who survived thirteen hours after taking a fatal 
dose of arsenious acid ; and in the same museum there is a wax model 
of the appearances which the fresh preparation exhibited, showing a large 
oval patch coated with mucus and the poison. The stomach was intensely 
inflamed, the csecum injected. The rest of the intestine was healthy. 
In the museum of University College there are two preparations, 
one 1 exhibiting intense swelling and congestion of the gastric mucous 
membrane, which is of a perfectly vermilion colour. Another pre¬ 
paration (No. 2868) shows the effect of a small dose of arsenic on the 
stomach ; there are spots of arborescent extravasation, and slight con¬ 
gestion of the summits of the rugae, but in other respects it is normal. 
There is also a cast of Peyer’s patches from the same case, showing 
great prominence of the glands, with some injection of the intestinal 
mucous membrane. 
In St Thomas’s Hospital there is an interesting preparation (No. 8) 
showing the gastric mucous membrane dotted all over with minute 
ulcers, none of which have an inflammatory zone. 2 The writers have 
not, however, seen in any museum a preparation of the curious emphyse¬ 
matous condition of the mucous membrane which has more than once 
been met with. For example, in a case related by Tardieu, 3 Schwann, 
a labourer, died from the effects of arsenic in thirty-six hours. The 
autopsy showed that the mucous membrane of the stomach and small 
intestine was covered with a pasty coating, and was elevated in nearly 
its whole extent by bullse filled with gas, forming true emphysematous 
swellings which encroached upon the diameter of the intestine. There was 
neither redness nor ulceration, but the mucous membrane was softened. 
The senior author saw, many years ago, at Barnard Castle, an 
autopsy made on a gentleman who died from arsenic. In this case 
the mucous membrane of the stomach presented a peculiar appear- 
1 This preparation at the time of visit had no number. 
2 In a case related by Orfila, t. i. Obs. xv., death resulted from the outward 
application of arsenic ; the mucous membrane of the stomach was natural in colour, 
but there were four ulcers, one of which was 50 centimetres in diameter. 
3 Op. cit., Obs. i. p. 468. 
