On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred S. Taylor ; edited, with notes and additions, by R. Eglesfeld Griffith.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred S. Taylor ; edited, with notes and additions, by R. Eglesfeld Griffith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    since the appearances closely resemble those produced by irritant poison. A person may die without suffering from any symptoms of disordered stomach; but, on an inspection of the body, a general redness of the mucous membrane of this organ will be found, not distinguishable from the redness which is so commonly seen in arsenical poisoning. Several cases of this kind have oc- curred at Guy's Hospital; and drawings have been made of the appearance of the stomach, and are now preserved in the Museum collection. A record has been kept of four of these ; and it is remarkable that, although in not one of them, before death, were any symptoms observed indicative of irritation or disease of the stomach, yet in all, the stomach was found more or less red- dened, and in two extensively so. Such cases are not very common ; but the certainty of their having occurred where poisoning could not be suspected, should place the witness on his guard, so that he be not led to countenance a suspicion of poisoning too hastily. In order to distinguish them, we must note whether there have been any symptoms during life, and their nature ; as, in the above cases, there may have been no symptoms, or they may have amounted only to slight gastric disturbance. Under these circumstances, they could not be mistaken for symptoms of irritant poisoning. Such cases are only likely to lead into error, those who trust to this post-mortem appearance alone as evidence of poisoning; but no medical jurist, aware of his duty, could ever be so misled. This redness of the stomach may truly occur where there is some ground for suspicion, as in the following case, communicated to the Medical Gazette by Mr. Tyson, of Beccles. A young woman, far advanced in pregnancy, died suddenly in a fit of syncope, soon after rising one morning. She had been in ill health previously ; but there was nothing to indicate that she had taken poison : indeed, from what has been already said, the suddenness of her death was rather against the suspicion that she had died from such a cause. Yet after death, it was found among other appearances that the mucous membrane of the stomach was inflamed (reddened?) and thrown into rugae. Although the case was very badly investigated by the coroner, who refused to allow a post-mortem examination, (which was made after the inquest only by consent of the friends,) it appears to me that this was an instance similar to those above described, the redness being due to some unknown cause, but not to poison. An interesting case, in which it is probable that this pseudo-morbid appearance of the mucous membrane was mistaken for the effects of irritant poison, will be found in the Ann. D'Hyg., 1835, i. 227. Dr. Yelloly long since remarked, that the mucous membrane of the stomach often presented a high degree of vascularity (redness) in cases of sudden death. He met with this appearance in the stomachs of some executed criminals, whose bodies were examined soon after they had undergone the sentence of the law. In a paper read before the Med.-Chir. Society in November 1835, this gentleman has re-examined the whole subject, and has given the results of numerous observations. They are of great interest to the medical jurist. Dr. Yelloly has endeavoured to show—1. That vascular fulness of the lining membrane of the stomach, whether florid or dark-coloured, is not a special mark of disease, because it is not in- consistent with a previous state of perfect health. 2. That those pathologists were deceived, who supposed, from the existence of this redness in the stomach, that gastritis sometimes existed without symptoms. 3. That erroneous con- clusions as to the cause of death were frequently owing to the same mistaken observations :•—the effects of putrefaction and spontaneous changes induced by the loss of vitality, being sometimes attributed to the action of poisons. 4. That the vascularity in question is entirely venous, the florid state of the vessels arising from the arterial character of the blood remaining in the veins for some time after its transmission from the arterial capillaries at the close 9*