Five essays / By John Kearsley Mitchell ... Ed. by S. Weir Mitchell.
- John Kearsley Mitchell
- Date:
- 1859
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Five essays / By John Kearsley Mitchell ... Ed. by S. Weir Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
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![per having been extracted, were inflated, respectively, witt common air, and carbonic acid gas. So prepared, each lung was surrounded by a bell-glass, containing an atmosphere of the other gas, so that common air sur- rounded the carbonic acid and vice versa. That lung which contained common air soon burst by the infiltra- tion of carbonic acid, while the other collapsed by its escape. In concluding the series of experiments, on the ques- tion of fact, some were ]|iade on living animals. A quantity of solution of acetate of lead having been thrown into the peritoneal cavity of a young cat, sul- phuretted hydrogen was discharged from the pipe of the generating retort, directly into the rectum. In four minutes the poisonous gas killed the animal, giving to it, because of enormously dilated pupils, a very wild aspect. Instantly on its death, which was itself an affair of a moment, the peritoneal coat of the intestines, and the walls of the cavity in contact with them, were found lined with a metallic-looking precipitate, adherent to the surface, and susceptible of removal by nitric acid mode- rately diluted. It was the characteristic precipitate of sulphuretted hydrogen when acting on lead. When in another experiment, the abdominal cavity was almost in- stantly opened, only the intestines and stomach pre- sented the bronzed aspect; the peritoneum of other parts, and the bladder, appeared of their natural color, thus proving that the gas had infiltrated, and not passed through any rent or fracture, an event which would have stained the whole of the lining membrane of the cavity, and dyed the bladder. This experiment for- cibly reminded us of that where the internal surface of a gum-elastic bag holding lead-water, was stained black](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2119726x_0300.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
