Report on the effects of acrid poisons / by Thomas Hodgkin.

Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the effects of acrid poisons / by Thomas Hodgkin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    221 FIFTH REPORT—1835. generally, seen in cases of poisoning by the swallowing of arsen ic« The character of the secretion upon the surface of the mu- cous membrane will sometimes throw considerable light on the condition of the membrane before death. In the case of the ^ t d ^ ccei\ ed boiling v\ atei, we have seen that a large quantity of fluid was secreted, since the stomach was found distended with it, and a considerable quantity had also been rejected by repeated vomiting. Not only the quantity but the quality of the secretion was altered, for besides the clear and glairy fluid, there was also some opake and partially coagu- lated matter, which appeared to consist of lymph. The fact that none of this was found in the stomach after death shows that it did not attach itself to the lining membrane in the form of a false membrane;—the abundance of the fluid secretion, combined with the continued and forcible action of the contrac- tile fibrous coat, having probably been the cause which pre- vented its doing so. In other instances, when the irritating cause is very active and remains applied to particular spots, the secretion is rather lymph than mucus, and remains attached to the lining membrane, except under particular circumstances, which I shall have to notice in one of the cases 1 am about to relate. The presence of a small quantity of blood in the matter secreted is equally worthy of attention with the production of lymph instead of ordinary mucus. In whatever way the es- cape of this blood is brought about, it is an evidence of the violence of the injury which the mucous membrane has re- ceived. It would appear, however, that it takes place in two modes, which deserve particular attention. In the one case the vessels seem to give way under the immediate influence of the violence which they receive, as well as from considerable and sudden injection. The haemorrhage in this case resembles that which takes place from mechanical injury, or more closely that from the Schneiderian membrane which occasionally takes place under violent exertion. In the other case to which I allude, the escape of blood is the result of a more slow and gradual process. It appears to be brought about by the alter- ation of structure which takes place as the result of the inflam- mation which the irritating cause has created. The blood es- capes from numerous minute points at which the redness is most intense, the substance of the membrane having become soft and tender, though somewhat thickened. It is this softening of the texture, the result of inflammation,