APPENDIX.-D. 
343 
notices of the stomach and abdominal viscera—where appearan¬ 
ces are presented which cannot be mistaken. 
“In the stomach inflammatory marks are very seldom wanting; 
and turning our attention to a rabid one, we are often first 
struck with its appearance of distention, and, on opening it, the 
cause is seen to arise from an accumulation of a considerable, 
oftentimes of an immense, mass of indigestible substances, as 
hay, straw, wood, coals, or, in fact, of any surrounding matter 
which has proved small enough for deglutition. This disposi¬ 
tion to take in unusual ingesta exists in every variety of the 
complaint; and as sickness and vomiting, though common in its 
early stages, are but seldom to be found during the latter 
periods of it, so the substances taken in being of an indigestible 
nature, necessarily remain within the stomach until death. 
There is little reason to doubt that a morbid sympathy in this 
organ is the occasion of this peculiarity, and that the presence 
of these hard bodies gives some relief, probably by the disten¬ 
tion they occasion. Certain it is, that the appearance of this 
indigestible and incongruous matter within the stomach is so 
common, that it becomes a pathognomonic sign of the utmost 
importance, and it should be searched for in every case where 
doubt exists. 
“ In describing the criteria of the disease, I have purposely 
omitted before enlarging on this particular, that I might here 
do it more fully, and that I might at once describe both the 
cause and effect: I must now therefore observe, that, of all the 
characteristic marks of the complaint, I consider this as the most 
genuine, and as the one liable to the least variation. I will not 
say that I never saw a rabid stomach, after death, without this 
crude indigestible mass; but, during the examination of more 
than two hundred cases, I do not recollect to have met with but 
very few indeed in which there has not been either this, or a 
chocolate-colored fluid : and when these indigesta are not 
present, on inquiry it will still be often found that such have 
been vomited up. This genuine characteristic cannot, there¬ 
fore, be too strongly kept in mind, because it is one that may be 
