An ounce of putrid water, in which some beef had been macerated, was
injected into the crural artery of a middling-sized dog. The artery
having been tied, the pulse ceased below the tendo-Achillis; the limb,
however, preserved its usual degree of heat, offering a contrast in
this respect to the last experiment. A considerable degree of fever
and restlessness followed the operation; this continued the whole day
and the following night, without any vomiting or evacuations, which so
constantly followed similar operations upon the veins. The next day
the limb was very painful, but not swollen; there was thirst, with the
ordinary secretion of fæces and urine. On the third day, the animal
was evidently better; the appetite had become almost natural, and he
could walk more easily, although the limb was still very painful. In
the night, there were some soft, almost liquid, evacuations. The fourth
day, the animal was evidently recovering, when an ounce and a half of
very fetid and very concentrated fluid (derived from the maceration
of beef), was injected into the crural artery of the opposite limb.
The animal immediately evinced pain, accompanied by very violent and
remarkable palpitation of the heart. It walked lame, keeping the leg
raised, and soon became feverish and uneasy. The symptoms were exactly
the same as after the first experiment. The leg became gradually more
and more painful, extremely sensitive, but not infiltrated with serum.
During the night, there was much expression of pain, and the animal was
in continual motion. Death occurred nineteen hours after the second
injection. The limb had become swollen only within five or six hours
previous to death.
_Post-mortem appearances._ The limb presented a very large quantity of
bloody fluid infiltrated in all the tissues. The superficial muscles
were black, and presented more or less the appearances of gangrene. The
deep muscles existed as such no longer, but were entirely disorganized,
and converted into a putrid pulp, resembling masses of the red lees
of wine, extremely fetid, and disengaging a quantity of gas. The limb
first injected was still swollen, and presented, in the interior of
the adductor muscles, two or three cavities filled with a putrid
bloody serum. In the chest, the lungs were healthy, as were also the
right cavities of the heart; but the left cavities presented several
reddish-black spots, scattered over their external surface. In the left
auricle was a firm yellowish-white coagulum, adhering to an inflamed
spot on its inner surface. The intestinal canal was filled with a
brownish red fluid, resembling altered blood, which, in the stomach
and duodenum, was of the colour of soot. The mucous membrane of these
organs, as well as of the jejunum and rectum, were gorged with blood,
of the colour of the lees of red wine, but without any inflammatory
thickening of their coats.