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EXPERIMENTS ON THE RELATIVE RATE OF ABSORPTION FROM THE STOMACH AND RECTUM.
548 Bright’s disease is connected with a pale and watenj condition of the blood, and with unmistakable signs of great vascular debility, as well as with 8u,,?piciotis of urcemic poisoning.
Experiment 32.
commenced Symptoms By mouth within 1 min.; utterpros-It is not easy to theorize upon the way in which convulsion 1 minim in 9i tratiun shortly after. Reminims ......I is brought about when urea is retained in the blood, or rather young rabbit 4 minutes. covery in when this retained urea is resolved into carbonate of ammonia By r6etum ’ in the blood. The simple fact appears to be that the powers in It min.; ful of the circulation become more and more enfeebled as the blood to same rabbit effects 2 min. Rehad day : it 51 21 becomes more and more contaminated, and that they are reI completelyreco covery in 15 minutes. duced almost to the last degree of feebleness when the con- ’, vered. L vulsion happens; but how to explain the fact is by no means I evident. It may be that the ursemic poisoning acts by destroy- I Experiment 33. ing the blood-corpuscles. Or it may be that the great deficiency affected in 1 of blood-corpuscles, which is it marked characteristic of Bright’s I 1 minim in 19 By rectum t’ Decidedly in 1½ min.; prostrated disease in its advanced stage, is independent of urasmic poisonsmall minims tnin. Dead in7 min. in the more concerned of the head and ing, production sympin the same way toms than the uræmic poisoning. Dr. Watson is of opinion By mouth in about the same time. " 1-31 that the pale and watery condition to which the blood is at ’, similar Dead in 5 minutes. last reduced in albuminuria may have something to do in ’, bringing about the stupor and coma of the ending scenes o. Experiment 34. the disorder; and for this good reason, that similar symptoms in 1 min.; prosBy mouth are apt to ensue, in conju nction with a similar deficiency of ! minim in trated in 2 min. Gradual very in I and am haematosin, spurious hydrocephalus: young quite dis- minims rabbit tt recovery in 5 or 6 min. posed to subscribe to this opinion, and to apply it to the interaffected in between Less pretation of the convulsion as well as to the interpretation of I and 2 min.; not pros-I By { the stupor and coma. But upon these points, and upon all 23, " to similar trated. Gradual recovery others connected with them, 1 must refrain from dilating at I, in 10 minutes. present. 84. Epileptiform convulsion is a direct consequence of sudden Experiment 35. and copious loss of blood. r Affected in 1½ min.; great This fact, which is unhappily too often verified by medical {I debility in 2 min.; exand surgical experience, has already been sufficiently com- ½ minim in 9-,l By rectum very young { { treme prostration in 4 mented upon when speaking on the part which the blood has to rabbit I min. Gradual recovery in the of It muscular motion in(¶ 35). can, play physiology t in 10 minutes. one have deed, only significance. r Affected in 1min.; de-85. The condition of the eineulation during convulsion is one mouth I By bility less marked; short which supports the notion that the convulsion is connected with 19 )! similar of , prostration. Mora: } with vital and not act’ion. exalted, depressed, , gradual recovery. All this follows necessarily from what has gone before, if it CATS. only be allowed, as it must needs be, that vital action is in direct relation to the activity of the circulation. Experiment 36. rectum in 2 minutes,: By 2 minims in to very large Gradual recovery in 25 EXPERIMENTS minims cat minutes. ’ ON THE First symptoms commenced ( mouth By RELATIVE RATE OF ABSORPTION FROM I, to I in 2 min.; most marked same cat in7 min., but no pros)) 22 { { ’J THE STOMACH AND RECTUM. day: it had,I tration. I Recovery comrecovered. menced in 15 minutes. t BY WILLIAM S.
{J ISymptomswithin
}
to
l
- {next ’
_
} {
to rabbit{Affected {to rabbit{ . {’Affected ......9½ {I to rectum ) rabbit ......
’
’
minims
in 9½ {to ( {jIt to
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rabbit
. .18. {
Prostrated {(
f
inext quite
SAVORY, ESQ., F.R.S.,
ASSISTANT-SURGEON AND LECTURER ST.
ON GENERAL
ANATOMY AND
Experiment 37.
PHYSIOLOGY,
BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL.
1minim in 19
(Concluded from p. 518.)
ininims
......
}
to {
By
rectum very large
{Affected No {
cat(
in
2 min.; not
prostrated. covery in 6
Gradual re7 minutes.
or
IT will be seen that the results of the following experiments By mouth to same cat with hydrocyanic acid are, on the whole, similar to those of visible effect. 11 22 two days after } I cyanide of potassium. This last experiment was repeated with the same result. The effects produced by hydrocyanic acid, which closely re- ; semble those of cyanide of potassium, are well-marked and i! The following experiment shows that the effects vary in time, familiar ones. Extreme debility, rapidly passing into complete even when the poison is administered in the same way-by th& prostration, with sometimes, towards the close, convulsions. the same animal. The diluted hydrocyanic acid of the P. L. was employed.
mouth-to
Experiment 38.
HYDROCYANIC ACID.
1i
RABBITS.
Experiment 5 minims in By rectum minims of to young rabbitt tilled water... i By mouth « " }{ to similar rabbitt
5}
dis-
minims
30.
( It {
fell over in convulsions in 1¼ min.; death almost
() Same
immediately
by
9
minims ......
3t
9t
symptoms, followed death in same time.
( Symptoms
smaller
-:
’
aa
I
of comBy mouth { menced in 1debility minute. Rerabbit t young covery in 8 minutes. commenced Symptoms within 1 debility By rectum more extreme. Recovery to somewhat more gradual; delayed rabbit . for more than half hour.
to (
(
after.
Experiment 31. 1 minim in
......18l’}By month
2 minims in
min.;
aa
min.; pros* min. (Symptoms I trated in 1½ fluctuating ){ recovery 7
By mouthAffected
to same cat next
{ day: it had com-
I pletely recovered. } L
By prostration I mean its side.
within 2 ’; effects for 1 or 2 min. Gradual in from 5 to minutes.
in 1 min.; prosalmost immediately after. Gradual recovery in 10 minuteø. trated
that the animal lies
powerless
upon
By recoveryI mean that the animal is able to walk again. This seemed to me to be the best, or at all events the most marked test that I could adopt. The effects produced by nicotine are, extreme debility, rapidly passing into utter prostration, with repeated convulsions. When recovery occurs, the effects are very transient.
549 of mixed with fifty-five grain of strychnia, I quarter minims of pure gastric juice obtained from dog. The mixture
NICOTINE.
a
exposed for a few minutes to 100° Fahr. Five minims of this, containing, therefore, the forty-eighth of agrain of stryohnirt, were then injected into the rectum of a cat. She had slight. was
Experiment 39. 1
drop in 10 minims of al-
}
were
a
S
RABBITS.
Debility in½ min.; tration in
pros-
spasms in half an hour. Experiment 48.-Four grains of pure strychnia were placed cohol in an ounce of pure gastric juice obtained through a gastric fistula from the stomach of a dog. It was exposed for more By rectum { than six hours to 100° Fahr. At the end of that time, it being " 92 to same animal only partially dissolved, the solution was completed by the addition of ten minims of acetic acid. It was kept at about 80° Fahr. for thirty hours longer. Experiment 40. Half a drachm of the solution, containing a quarter of a grain Marked debility in 1 min.; A drop in and con- of strychnia, was poured down the throat of a pigeon. In six debility great minims By rectum -I vulsions in 2 min. Rapid minutes a severe spasm ensued, and this was soon followed by others. The bird was killed to avoid suffering. recovery. I introduced into the rectum of a kitten three days old, seven debility in 3 min.; " By mouth minims of the same solution, containing about the sixteenth of " in 1 main. a prostrated same animal of strychnia. In five minutes it had a very severe spasm, grain Rapid recovery. a repetition of which proved fital. Experiment 41. Experiment 49.-Four grains of strychnia were dissolved in ¼ drop in 5 Prostrated in 2 min. an ounce of gastric juice, obtained from the stomach of a dog, rectum minims ..... by the addition of ten minims of acetic acid. Rapid recovery. í By I gave a drachm of this solution, containing, therefore, half min. mouth Prostrated in By Rapid " " a grain of strychnia, which I had previously kept for many to same rabbit ( recovery. weeks, to a large cock pigeon by the rectum. It died in a severe GUINEA-PIGS. spasm almost immediately. It never moved after it was released. Experiment 42. - urop in 5 I introduced the same dose into the crop of a smaller hen No effect. pigeon. For ten minutes no visible effect ensued. The bird minims } By mouth seemed well, and picked up grain. Then a slight spasm snper{ By rectum effects in 10 min. " " vened, followed by others much more severe, and in fifteen same animal minutes the bird was dead. The contrast between the two cases was a striking one. Experiment 43. 4 I have made other experiments on this subject in various in 51 in 3 or 4 , debility By mouth minims ......} min. Recovery. ways, but in none of them have I observed that the admixture juice produced any modification in the effects. prostration with of gastricthese By rectum ( Extreme From " convulsions in 2½ min. experiments it would appear, then, that the less " ) to same animal Death in 8 min. rapid and energetic effects of strychnia upon the system when introduced by the stomach than by the rectum cannot be asCAT. cribed to any change produced in it by the chemical action of Experiment 44. the gastric juice. 1 drop in 10 I performed the following experiments with a view of ascer9 min. extreme sickness In By rectitm and diarrhosa. Recovery. taining whether the presence of food in the stomach exercises minims ...... the results. By mouth (Obvious debility in 1 min.; any material influence upon I 50.-To a rabbit, immediately after a full meal same cat next utter prostration with Experiment aa 11 which had convulsions in 3 or 4 min. of cabbage-leaves, I gave, by the mouth, ten minims of the ’ solution, containing half a grain of strychnia. In twenty-eight Death in 15min. quite minutes it had a severe spasm, which after a while proved fatal. With regard to nicotine, an alkaloid in the form of a volatile To another rabbit, after fasting for twelve hours, I gave a oil, it would seem that, as a rule,-to which, however, excep. similar dose in the same way. In twenty-eight minutes it had tions frequently occar,—the energy and rapidity of its effects severe spasms, which at length proved fatal. This rabbit was are somewhat greater when it is absorbed from the first portion larger, and resisted the effects longer. of the alimentary canal than when it passes into the system Experiment 51.-1 injected into the stomach of a rabbit two months old, after a full meal of oats and cabbage-leaves, five through the rectum. I have experimented with other poisons, but with uncertain minims of the solution of strychnia in gastric juice described in results, owing to the fact that the first symptoms produced are Experiment 43, containing, therefore, the twenty.fourth of a dubious, or supervene too gradually. Atropia and morphia, grain. In nine minutes a severe spasm ensued, which in six or for examples, either fail in ordinary doses to affect some of the seven minutes more proved fatal. After death the stomach was lower animals, or the symptoms are so remote and obscure as found full of food. To another rabbit from the same litter I gave in the same to interfere with exact observation of the time of their occurrence. way a similar dose-five minims, equal to the twenty-fourth of Let me, however, here remark, that in the case of no single a grain of strychnia-after a full meal. In this instance a severe substance which I have employed has the advantage of the spasm occurred in two minutes, which within two minutes more stomach over the rectum appeared to be as great, or even proved fatal. After death the stomach was found full of food. There was no apparent cause to which I could attribute the nearly so, as it is generally believed to be. The difference observed in favour of the stomach has never been so marked and striking difference in the results of these two experiments. uniform as the manifest and unequivocal difference, in the case After a rabbit two months old, of the same litter as those of strychnia, in favour of the rectum. used in the last two cases, had been kept fasting twenty-one With a view of testing the influence of gastric juice upon hours, I injected into its stomach five minims of the same solustrychnia I performed the following experiments :tion, containing the twenty-fourth of a grain of strychnia. A Experiment 45.-Into the rectum of a dog of moderate size I fatal spasm occurred within one minute, and in less than a injected twenty minims of the solution, containing one grain of minute and a half the rabbit was dead. The stomach was found strychnia, which had been previously mixed with half a drachm contracted to about half its full size upon a small quantity of of pure gastric juice obtained from the stomach of a cat, and food, which was in great measure digested. then set aside for twenty hours. In the course of a minute or I repeated the experiment in the same way upon another two fatal spasms supervened. rabbit of the same litter, which had fasted for the same length Experiment 46.—I injected into the rectum of a cat two of time. In this case the effects commenced in about four minims ofa solution, containing one-tenth ofa grain of strychnia, minutes, much more gradually, with twitching and starting. which had been mixed with ten minims of pure gastric juice A severe spasm occurred in between five and six minutes. In obtained from a guinea-pig, and kept for ten minutes at 100° from seven to eight minutes the rabbit was dead. The stomach Fahr. In from seven to ten minutes fatal spasms supervened. was found contracted to about half its full size upon wellExperiment 47.-Five minims of the solution, containing a I digested food.
}
By mouth
.........
1½ min. Rapid
-{
recovery; able to walk in 3 minutes. in 1 min. In 2 minutes recovery commenced.
)
( Debility
5}
f}{
{to
..
j
( Marked {
.
I
}
-
_
} { to
Slight
’
_
_
drop
i
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({
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){ day, recovered.(L
550 I cannot account for the difference observed in these two
line of research in regard to a medico-legal question of a nature, and as certain imperfect impressions important Neither from these, then, nor from other experiments which are afloat concerning it, I take the opportunity of laying the were alike variable in their results, did I obtain any consistent exact scientific facts before the profession at the earliest posor satisfactory evidence to show that the effects of strychnia. in solution are constantly or materially influenced by the presence sible moment. of food in the stomach. I imagine, however, that something To make every point clear to provincial and foreign brethren, may depend upon whether the solution comes at once into let me state the simple narrative of the facts in the first place. direct contact with the gastric walls. Some weeks ago a woman named Emma Jackson was murdered I made some experiments to ascertain to what extent the in St. Giles’s by having her throat cut in a house of ill-fame, action of strychnia is modified by introducing it in a solid form. to which she bad retired with a man who had been seen by at Experiment 52.-After a cat had fasted forty-eight hours I least three persons, and whose appearance was clearly defined gave him a full meal of meat, and immediately after, while he by them. This man, by some strange and almost inexplicable was under chloroform, I passed far into the rectum two pills of method, made his escape from the house without being seen to bread, each containing a quarter of a grain of strychnia. They depart, and has not since been detected. Several persons have, had been made three days and were rather hard. Therefore however, been suspected, and one or two have been temporarily half a grain of strychnia was thus administered. The cat re- detained, but on examination they have been discharged. mained perfectly well for fifty-two minutes afterwards. Then On Monday, May 4th, a man was dragged dead from the he became somewhat restless. In fifty-five minutes there was Thames who in many respects seemed to answer to the descripperceptible stiffness about the hinder extremities, causing a tion given of the assumed murderer. On the following Wednespeculiarity of gait. The front portion of the body appeared to day Mr. Humphreys, the coroner for East Middlesex, held an be unaffected. In seven minutes there was a decided spasm. inquest on the body of this man, bat decomposition had adAfter this for a while the cat seemed more composed. Other vanced so far that none of the witnesses could arrive at any spasms followed at no distant intervals, and in two hours and conclusion whatever respecting the body : it was, in fact, ten minutes the cat was dead. utterly unrecognizable. This statement having been made in I passed into the oesophagus of a cat, under chloroform, which the public papers on Thursday morning, I formed an opinion, had fasted for twenty-four hours after a full meal, two pills, derived from some researches on dead tissues, that it might be each containing a quarter of a grain of strychnia made up with possible to alter the appearance of the body so much as tu bread. One of them he returned in a few minutes, but he swal- enable the witnesses to speak to its identity. In the afternoon lowed the other, thus taking in a pill a quarter of a grain of of Thursday last I met, accidentally, Dr. Lankester, who had strychnia. Slight spasms appeared in fifteen minutes. The cat held the inquest over the body of Emma Jackson, and I exwas then killed to avoid suffering. plained to him my views. He urged me very strongly to comExperiment 53.-1 gave to a raog, immediately after a full municate with Mr. Humphreys. I did so, and through the meal, two bread pills, each containing a quarter of a grain of kind aid of Dr. Edmunds got an interview with Mr. Humphreys strychnia, by the mouth. In fifteen minutes a decided spasm on Friday night. Having given him an outline of the plan I appeared, and in two minutes more the dog was dead. proposed to follow, he deputed me to carry out the attempt,, I gave to a dog two bread pills, each containing a quarter of and requested Dr. Edmunds to be present and take part in a grain of strychnia, by the rectum. No effects were produced conducting the suggested process. We were to act at once, as: at the end of two hours, but he was found dead a short time the adjourned inquest was to be held on Saturday. after. At half-past ten on Saturday we were taken to the dead As would be expected, therefore, not only is the action of man, who was lying in a shell in the dead-house in Darbystrychnia very much delayed by introducing it otherwise than street, Tower-hill. He was dressed as he was when taken out in solution-delayed to an extent proportionate, no doubt, to of the water. His body generally, with the exception of the the difficulty with which it is dissolved,-but in this state it hands, was deeply discoloured, and the face was so changed acts more rapidly when introduced by the stomach than by the that it was quite impossible to form any opinion respecting
experiments.
a uew
very
-
a doubt that this is due to the solvent action of the gastric juice. If substances in a state of solution fit for absorption can find their way into the system more rapidly through the rectum than through the stomach, yet the solvent power of the fluids of the rectum upon solid substances cannot, of course, be compared to that of the gastric juice. I have delayed the publication of these experiments in the hope of being able to add to them some observations on the human subject. But there are here so many difficulties in the way of obtaining unequivocal evidence, that I have now put forward these experiments, not as the most striking, but as fair representative ones of those I have performed upon animals, in order that if any should deem them worthy of attention, the observation of others may be directed to what seems to me to
rectum. There cannot be
be
an
important subject. AN ACCOUNT OF AN
ATTEMPT TO RESTORE TO ITS NATURAL APPEARANCE A PUTREFIED DEAD BODY, IN ORDER TO PROVE ITS IDENTITY. BY BENJAMIN WARD
RICHARDSON, M.A., M.D.,
SENIOR PHYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY FOR DISEASES OF THE CHEST.
ON Saturday the 9th instant, 1 conducted an inquiry to ascertain if a human body that had undergone putrefactive change to such a degree that it was unrecognizable could be so far restored to the appearance of life as to be sworn upon in respect to its identity. As the inquiry in question, from the circumstances by which it was surrounded, has created great public interest, as it opens
either its colour or feature : it was as black as the face of the darkest negro, and had it not been white when he was taken out of the water I should say that the man would have been returned as a negro. The lips were enormously distended, and the nose was scarcely visible; the cheeks and eyelids were also greatly distended. In fact, the putrefactive changes were so advanced that it required some little determination to proceed. following, nevertheless, the course I had marked out, we immersed the body in water, and then added to the water twenty pounds of common salt; we also added gradually, in the course of the operation, one pint of common hydrochloric acid; and the body was allowed to remain under this solution for two hours. The object of this part of the process was to reduce the swelling of the features by exosmosis. The shell, being watertight, answered as a bath. Meanwhile we charged a pail of water with fresh chlorine, and then, lifting the face out of the water in the shell, treated it with the chlorine water. I also directed a stream of chlorine gas for some time upon the face. The object of this part of the process was to restore the white colour. A little before one o’clock both of the intentions we had in view were realized to a considerable degree. The tumefaction was relieved; and the face, from the deepest black, had become of the cast of light clay, common wood-ash, or the darker sort of straw-paper. When the chlorine in vapour was passing over the face the skin approached to white, but so soon as it was withdrawn the change to clay-like hue returned. So much was now accomplished that we were able to form a fair estimate of the man. We found that he was evidently a young man, not more probably than twenty-one years of age ; he had a short feeble moustache; his lower lip had a short soft beard that had not been shaven, and his whiskers corresponded; his face was naturally round and full, and indeed his body gene-
rally was well nonrished. At one o’clock we left, and returned at two. We had arranged that a stream of chlorine should continue to play over the face in our absence, but, as we had no one to leave in charge, the gas had become exhausted, and the face was a little darker when
we
returned.
Experiment 32.
commenced Symptoms By mouth within 1 min.; utterpros-It is not easy to theorize upon the way in which convulsion 1 minim in 9i tratiun shortly after. Reminims ......I is brought about when urea is retained in the blood, or rather young rabbit 4 minutes. covery in when this retained urea is resolved into carbonate of ammonia By r6etum ’ in the blood. The simple fact appears to be that the powers in It min.; ful of the circulation become more and more enfeebled as the blood to same rabbit effects 2 min. Rehad day : it 51 21 becomes more and more contaminated, and that they are reI completelyreco covery in 15 minutes. duced almost to the last degree of feebleness when the con- ’, vered. L vulsion happens; but how to explain the fact is by no means I evident. It may be that the ursemic poisoning acts by destroy- I Experiment 33. ing the blood-corpuscles. Or it may be that the great deficiency affected in 1 of blood-corpuscles, which is it marked characteristic of Bright’s I 1 minim in 19 By rectum t’ Decidedly in 1½ min.; prostrated disease in its advanced stage, is independent of urasmic poisonsmall minims tnin. Dead in7 min. in the more concerned of the head and ing, production sympin the same way toms than the uræmic poisoning. Dr. Watson is of opinion By mouth in about the same time. " 1-31 that the pale and watery condition to which the blood is at ’, similar Dead in 5 minutes. last reduced in albuminuria may have something to do in ’, bringing about the stupor and coma of the ending scenes o. Experiment 34. the disorder; and for this good reason, that similar symptoms in 1 min.; prosBy mouth are apt to ensue, in conju nction with a similar deficiency of ! minim in trated in 2 min. Gradual very in I and am haematosin, spurious hydrocephalus: young quite dis- minims rabbit tt recovery in 5 or 6 min. posed to subscribe to this opinion, and to apply it to the interaffected in between Less pretation of the convulsion as well as to the interpretation of I and 2 min.; not pros-I By { the stupor and coma. But upon these points, and upon all 23, " to similar trated. Gradual recovery others connected with them, 1 must refrain from dilating at I, in 10 minutes. present. 84. Epileptiform convulsion is a direct consequence of sudden Experiment 35. and copious loss of blood. r Affected in 1½ min.; great This fact, which is unhappily too often verified by medical {I debility in 2 min.; exand surgical experience, has already been sufficiently com- ½ minim in 9-,l By rectum very young { { treme prostration in 4 mented upon when speaking on the part which the blood has to rabbit I min. Gradual recovery in the of It muscular motion in(¶ 35). can, play physiology t in 10 minutes. one have deed, only significance. r Affected in 1min.; de-85. The condition of the eineulation during convulsion is one mouth I By bility less marked; short which supports the notion that the convulsion is connected with 19 )! similar of , prostration. Mora: } with vital and not act’ion. exalted, depressed, , gradual recovery. All this follows necessarily from what has gone before, if it CATS. only be allowed, as it must needs be, that vital action is in direct relation to the activity of the circulation. Experiment 36. rectum in 2 minutes,: By 2 minims in to very large Gradual recovery in 25 EXPERIMENTS minims cat minutes. ’ ON THE First symptoms commenced ( mouth By RELATIVE RATE OF ABSORPTION FROM I, to I in 2 min.; most marked same cat in7 min., but no pros)) 22 { { ’J THE STOMACH AND RECTUM. day: it had,I tration. I Recovery comrecovered. menced in 15 minutes. t BY WILLIAM S.
{J ISymptomswithin
}
to
l
- {next ’
_
} {
to rabbit{Affected {to rabbit{ . {’Affected ......9½ {I to rectum ) rabbit ......
’
’
minims
in 9½ {to ( {jIt to
{
rabbit
. .18. {
Prostrated {(
f
inext quite
SAVORY, ESQ., F.R.S.,
ASSISTANT-SURGEON AND LECTURER ST.
ON GENERAL
ANATOMY AND
Experiment 37.
PHYSIOLOGY,
BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL.
1minim in 19
(Concluded from p. 518.)
ininims
......
}
to {
By
rectum very large
{Affected No {
cat(
in
2 min.; not
prostrated. covery in 6
Gradual re7 minutes.
or
IT will be seen that the results of the following experiments By mouth to same cat with hydrocyanic acid are, on the whole, similar to those of visible effect. 11 22 two days after } I cyanide of potassium. This last experiment was repeated with the same result. The effects produced by hydrocyanic acid, which closely re- ; semble those of cyanide of potassium, are well-marked and i! The following experiment shows that the effects vary in time, familiar ones. Extreme debility, rapidly passing into complete even when the poison is administered in the same way-by th& prostration, with sometimes, towards the close, convulsions. the same animal. The diluted hydrocyanic acid of the P. L. was employed.
mouth-to
Experiment 38.
HYDROCYANIC ACID.
1i
RABBITS.
Experiment 5 minims in By rectum minims of to young rabbitt tilled water... i By mouth « " }{ to similar rabbitt
5}
dis-
minims
30.
( It {
fell over in convulsions in 1¼ min.; death almost
() Same
immediately
by
9
minims ......
3t
9t
symptoms, followed death in same time.
( Symptoms
smaller
-:
’
aa
I
of comBy mouth { menced in 1debility minute. Rerabbit t young covery in 8 minutes. commenced Symptoms within 1 debility By rectum more extreme. Recovery to somewhat more gradual; delayed rabbit . for more than half hour.
to (
(
after.
Experiment 31. 1 minim in
......18l’}By month
2 minims in
min.;
aa
min.; pros* min. (Symptoms I trated in 1½ fluctuating ){ recovery 7
By mouthAffected
to same cat next
{ day: it had com-
I pletely recovered. } L
By prostration I mean its side.
within 2 ’; effects for 1 or 2 min. Gradual in from 5 to minutes.
in 1 min.; prosalmost immediately after. Gradual recovery in 10 minuteø. trated
that the animal lies
powerless
upon
By recoveryI mean that the animal is able to walk again. This seemed to me to be the best, or at all events the most marked test that I could adopt. The effects produced by nicotine are, extreme debility, rapidly passing into utter prostration, with repeated convulsions. When recovery occurs, the effects are very transient.
549 of mixed with fifty-five grain of strychnia, I quarter minims of pure gastric juice obtained from dog. The mixture
NICOTINE.
a
exposed for a few minutes to 100° Fahr. Five minims of this, containing, therefore, the forty-eighth of agrain of stryohnirt, were then injected into the rectum of a cat. She had slight. was
Experiment 39. 1
drop in 10 minims of al-
}
were
a
S
RABBITS.
Debility in½ min.; tration in
pros-
spasms in half an hour. Experiment 48.-Four grains of pure strychnia were placed cohol in an ounce of pure gastric juice obtained through a gastric fistula from the stomach of a dog. It was exposed for more By rectum { than six hours to 100° Fahr. At the end of that time, it being " 92 to same animal only partially dissolved, the solution was completed by the addition of ten minims of acetic acid. It was kept at about 80° Fahr. for thirty hours longer. Experiment 40. Half a drachm of the solution, containing a quarter of a grain Marked debility in 1 min.; A drop in and con- of strychnia, was poured down the throat of a pigeon. In six debility great minims By rectum -I vulsions in 2 min. Rapid minutes a severe spasm ensued, and this was soon followed by others. The bird was killed to avoid suffering. recovery. I introduced into the rectum of a kitten three days old, seven debility in 3 min.; " By mouth minims of the same solution, containing about the sixteenth of " in 1 main. a prostrated same animal of strychnia. In five minutes it had a very severe spasm, grain Rapid recovery. a repetition of which proved fital. Experiment 41. Experiment 49.-Four grains of strychnia were dissolved in ¼ drop in 5 Prostrated in 2 min. an ounce of gastric juice, obtained from the stomach of a dog, rectum minims ..... by the addition of ten minims of acetic acid. Rapid recovery. í By I gave a drachm of this solution, containing, therefore, half min. mouth Prostrated in By Rapid " " a grain of strychnia, which I had previously kept for many to same rabbit ( recovery. weeks, to a large cock pigeon by the rectum. It died in a severe GUINEA-PIGS. spasm almost immediately. It never moved after it was released. Experiment 42. - urop in 5 I introduced the same dose into the crop of a smaller hen No effect. pigeon. For ten minutes no visible effect ensued. The bird minims } By mouth seemed well, and picked up grain. Then a slight spasm snper{ By rectum effects in 10 min. " " vened, followed by others much more severe, and in fifteen same animal minutes the bird was dead. The contrast between the two cases was a striking one. Experiment 43. 4 I have made other experiments on this subject in various in 51 in 3 or 4 , debility By mouth minims ......} min. Recovery. ways, but in none of them have I observed that the admixture juice produced any modification in the effects. prostration with of gastricthese By rectum ( Extreme From " convulsions in 2½ min. experiments it would appear, then, that the less " ) to same animal Death in 8 min. rapid and energetic effects of strychnia upon the system when introduced by the stomach than by the rectum cannot be asCAT. cribed to any change produced in it by the chemical action of Experiment 44. the gastric juice. 1 drop in 10 I performed the following experiments with a view of ascer9 min. extreme sickness In By rectitm and diarrhosa. Recovery. taining whether the presence of food in the stomach exercises minims ...... the results. By mouth (Obvious debility in 1 min.; any material influence upon I 50.-To a rabbit, immediately after a full meal same cat next utter prostration with Experiment aa 11 which had convulsions in 3 or 4 min. of cabbage-leaves, I gave, by the mouth, ten minims of the ’ solution, containing half a grain of strychnia. In twenty-eight Death in 15min. quite minutes it had a severe spasm, which after a while proved fatal. With regard to nicotine, an alkaloid in the form of a volatile To another rabbit, after fasting for twelve hours, I gave a oil, it would seem that, as a rule,-to which, however, excep. similar dose in the same way. In twenty-eight minutes it had tions frequently occar,—the energy and rapidity of its effects severe spasms, which at length proved fatal. This rabbit was are somewhat greater when it is absorbed from the first portion larger, and resisted the effects longer. of the alimentary canal than when it passes into the system Experiment 51.-1 injected into the stomach of a rabbit two months old, after a full meal of oats and cabbage-leaves, five through the rectum. I have experimented with other poisons, but with uncertain minims of the solution of strychnia in gastric juice described in results, owing to the fact that the first symptoms produced are Experiment 43, containing, therefore, the twenty.fourth of a dubious, or supervene too gradually. Atropia and morphia, grain. In nine minutes a severe spasm ensued, which in six or for examples, either fail in ordinary doses to affect some of the seven minutes more proved fatal. After death the stomach was lower animals, or the symptoms are so remote and obscure as found full of food. To another rabbit from the same litter I gave in the same to interfere with exact observation of the time of their occurrence. way a similar dose-five minims, equal to the twenty-fourth of Let me, however, here remark, that in the case of no single a grain of strychnia-after a full meal. In this instance a severe substance which I have employed has the advantage of the spasm occurred in two minutes, which within two minutes more stomach over the rectum appeared to be as great, or even proved fatal. After death the stomach was found full of food. There was no apparent cause to which I could attribute the nearly so, as it is generally believed to be. The difference observed in favour of the stomach has never been so marked and striking difference in the results of these two experiments. uniform as the manifest and unequivocal difference, in the case After a rabbit two months old, of the same litter as those of strychnia, in favour of the rectum. used in the last two cases, had been kept fasting twenty-one With a view of testing the influence of gastric juice upon hours, I injected into its stomach five minims of the same solustrychnia I performed the following experiments :tion, containing the twenty-fourth of a grain of strychnia. A Experiment 45.-Into the rectum of a dog of moderate size I fatal spasm occurred within one minute, and in less than a injected twenty minims of the solution, containing one grain of minute and a half the rabbit was dead. The stomach was found strychnia, which had been previously mixed with half a drachm contracted to about half its full size upon a small quantity of of pure gastric juice obtained from the stomach of a cat, and food, which was in great measure digested. then set aside for twenty hours. In the course of a minute or I repeated the experiment in the same way upon another two fatal spasms supervened. rabbit of the same litter, which had fasted for the same length Experiment 46.—I injected into the rectum of a cat two of time. In this case the effects commenced in about four minims ofa solution, containing one-tenth ofa grain of strychnia, minutes, much more gradually, with twitching and starting. which had been mixed with ten minims of pure gastric juice A severe spasm occurred in between five and six minutes. In obtained from a guinea-pig, and kept for ten minutes at 100° from seven to eight minutes the rabbit was dead. The stomach Fahr. In from seven to ten minutes fatal spasms supervened. was found contracted to about half its full size upon wellExperiment 47.-Five minims of the solution, containing a I digested food.
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recovery; able to walk in 3 minutes. in 1 min. In 2 minutes recovery commenced.
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550 I cannot account for the difference observed in these two
line of research in regard to a medico-legal question of a nature, and as certain imperfect impressions important Neither from these, then, nor from other experiments which are afloat concerning it, I take the opportunity of laying the were alike variable in their results, did I obtain any consistent exact scientific facts before the profession at the earliest posor satisfactory evidence to show that the effects of strychnia. in solution are constantly or materially influenced by the presence sible moment. of food in the stomach. I imagine, however, that something To make every point clear to provincial and foreign brethren, may depend upon whether the solution comes at once into let me state the simple narrative of the facts in the first place. direct contact with the gastric walls. Some weeks ago a woman named Emma Jackson was murdered I made some experiments to ascertain to what extent the in St. Giles’s by having her throat cut in a house of ill-fame, action of strychnia is modified by introducing it in a solid form. to which she bad retired with a man who had been seen by at Experiment 52.-After a cat had fasted forty-eight hours I least three persons, and whose appearance was clearly defined gave him a full meal of meat, and immediately after, while he by them. This man, by some strange and almost inexplicable was under chloroform, I passed far into the rectum two pills of method, made his escape from the house without being seen to bread, each containing a quarter of a grain of strychnia. They depart, and has not since been detected. Several persons have, had been made three days and were rather hard. Therefore however, been suspected, and one or two have been temporarily half a grain of strychnia was thus administered. The cat re- detained, but on examination they have been discharged. mained perfectly well for fifty-two minutes afterwards. Then On Monday, May 4th, a man was dragged dead from the he became somewhat restless. In fifty-five minutes there was Thames who in many respects seemed to answer to the descripperceptible stiffness about the hinder extremities, causing a tion given of the assumed murderer. On the following Wednespeculiarity of gait. The front portion of the body appeared to day Mr. Humphreys, the coroner for East Middlesex, held an be unaffected. In seven minutes there was a decided spasm. inquest on the body of this man, bat decomposition had adAfter this for a while the cat seemed more composed. Other vanced so far that none of the witnesses could arrive at any spasms followed at no distant intervals, and in two hours and conclusion whatever respecting the body : it was, in fact, ten minutes the cat was dead. utterly unrecognizable. This statement having been made in I passed into the oesophagus of a cat, under chloroform, which the public papers on Thursday morning, I formed an opinion, had fasted for twenty-four hours after a full meal, two pills, derived from some researches on dead tissues, that it might be each containing a quarter of a grain of strychnia made up with possible to alter the appearance of the body so much as tu bread. One of them he returned in a few minutes, but he swal- enable the witnesses to speak to its identity. In the afternoon lowed the other, thus taking in a pill a quarter of a grain of of Thursday last I met, accidentally, Dr. Lankester, who had strychnia. Slight spasms appeared in fifteen minutes. The cat held the inquest over the body of Emma Jackson, and I exwas then killed to avoid suffering. plained to him my views. He urged me very strongly to comExperiment 53.-1 gave to a raog, immediately after a full municate with Mr. Humphreys. I did so, and through the meal, two bread pills, each containing a quarter of a grain of kind aid of Dr. Edmunds got an interview with Mr. Humphreys strychnia, by the mouth. In fifteen minutes a decided spasm on Friday night. Having given him an outline of the plan I appeared, and in two minutes more the dog was dead. proposed to follow, he deputed me to carry out the attempt,, I gave to a dog two bread pills, each containing a quarter of and requested Dr. Edmunds to be present and take part in a grain of strychnia, by the rectum. No effects were produced conducting the suggested process. We were to act at once, as: at the end of two hours, but he was found dead a short time the adjourned inquest was to be held on Saturday. after. At half-past ten on Saturday we were taken to the dead As would be expected, therefore, not only is the action of man, who was lying in a shell in the dead-house in Darbystrychnia very much delayed by introducing it otherwise than street, Tower-hill. He was dressed as he was when taken out in solution-delayed to an extent proportionate, no doubt, to of the water. His body generally, with the exception of the the difficulty with which it is dissolved,-but in this state it hands, was deeply discoloured, and the face was so changed acts more rapidly when introduced by the stomach than by the that it was quite impossible to form any opinion respecting
experiments.
a uew
very
-
a doubt that this is due to the solvent action of the gastric juice. If substances in a state of solution fit for absorption can find their way into the system more rapidly through the rectum than through the stomach, yet the solvent power of the fluids of the rectum upon solid substances cannot, of course, be compared to that of the gastric juice. I have delayed the publication of these experiments in the hope of being able to add to them some observations on the human subject. But there are here so many difficulties in the way of obtaining unequivocal evidence, that I have now put forward these experiments, not as the most striking, but as fair representative ones of those I have performed upon animals, in order that if any should deem them worthy of attention, the observation of others may be directed to what seems to me to
rectum. There cannot be
be
an
important subject. AN ACCOUNT OF AN
ATTEMPT TO RESTORE TO ITS NATURAL APPEARANCE A PUTREFIED DEAD BODY, IN ORDER TO PROVE ITS IDENTITY. BY BENJAMIN WARD
RICHARDSON, M.A., M.D.,
SENIOR PHYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY FOR DISEASES OF THE CHEST.
ON Saturday the 9th instant, 1 conducted an inquiry to ascertain if a human body that had undergone putrefactive change to such a degree that it was unrecognizable could be so far restored to the appearance of life as to be sworn upon in respect to its identity. As the inquiry in question, from the circumstances by which it was surrounded, has created great public interest, as it opens
either its colour or feature : it was as black as the face of the darkest negro, and had it not been white when he was taken out of the water I should say that the man would have been returned as a negro. The lips were enormously distended, and the nose was scarcely visible; the cheeks and eyelids were also greatly distended. In fact, the putrefactive changes were so advanced that it required some little determination to proceed. following, nevertheless, the course I had marked out, we immersed the body in water, and then added to the water twenty pounds of common salt; we also added gradually, in the course of the operation, one pint of common hydrochloric acid; and the body was allowed to remain under this solution for two hours. The object of this part of the process was to reduce the swelling of the features by exosmosis. The shell, being watertight, answered as a bath. Meanwhile we charged a pail of water with fresh chlorine, and then, lifting the face out of the water in the shell, treated it with the chlorine water. I also directed a stream of chlorine gas for some time upon the face. The object of this part of the process was to restore the white colour. A little before one o’clock both of the intentions we had in view were realized to a considerable degree. The tumefaction was relieved; and the face, from the deepest black, had become of the cast of light clay, common wood-ash, or the darker sort of straw-paper. When the chlorine in vapour was passing over the face the skin approached to white, but so soon as it was withdrawn the change to clay-like hue returned. So much was now accomplished that we were able to form a fair estimate of the man. We found that he was evidently a young man, not more probably than twenty-one years of age ; he had a short feeble moustache; his lower lip had a short soft beard that had not been shaven, and his whiskers corresponded; his face was naturally round and full, and indeed his body gene-
rally was well nonrished. At one o’clock we left, and returned at two. We had arranged that a stream of chlorine should continue to play over the face in our absence, but, as we had no one to leave in charge, the gas had become exhausted, and the face was a little darker when
we
returned.