“The mucous membranes were not the only parts affected by the
artificial suppression of the insensible perspiration. We also
observed the production of serous effusions in the pericardium, and
even in the pleuræ. These effusions thus demonstrate that dropsies
are found in the same body as mucous discharges. Several dogs died
with paraplegia, and could only drag themselves along on their fore
paws; some died atrophied, and their lungs contained miliary
tubercules, which appeared to me, from their whiteness and
softness, to be of recent formation. It was, therefore, now
impossible to doubt the influence of the suppression of the
insensible perspiration of the skin upon the changes in the blood,
the mucous and serous exudations, and finally, upon the development
of local lesions.
“But the results of these experiments differ in toto according as
the plastering is partial or general, or as it suspends the action
of the skin incompletely or completely. In the first case, the
alteration of the blood is not carried so far as to cause the
dissolution of its organic elements; it can coagulate, and present,
in some few cases, a buffy coat of little consistency, bearing some
resemblance to that which is found in inflammatory blood. As to the
tissues affected, they, however, appear to me to present the
anatomical characteristics of the consequences of local
inflammation.
“But when the application of very adhesive substances upon the
whole of the body quickly suppresses the cutaneous exhalation, and
consequently prevents the action of the air upon the skin, death
takes place much more speedily, and appears to be the result of
true asphyxia. The breathing of the animals experimented upon, is
difficult; they take deep inspirations, in order to inhale a larger
quantity of air than usual; their death is violent, and is often
accompanied by convulsive movements. On dissection, we find in the
veins and the right cavities of the heart, sometimes also in the
left, but very rarely in the arteries, a black diffluent blood,
forming sometimes into soft and diffluent coagula, and coagulating,
very imperfectly, when exposed to atmospherical air. This
dissolution of the blood, favours the formation of large ecchymoses
and of effusions into the lungs and other organs, the capillary
vessels are usually injected;—one can see that the alteration of
the blood has been the true cause of the stagnation of the
circulation in this order of vessels. * * * * *
“It is important to state that man, in the same way as animals,
dies from cutaneous asphyxia when his body is covered by
impermeable applications. I shall detail, in another work, the
results of my researches upon this subject, and facts which still
belong to general history will enter into the province of medicine.
Thus, at Florence, when Leo X. was raised to the pontificate, a
child was gilt all over, in order to represent the golden age. This
unfortunate child soon died, the victim of a physiological
experiment of a novel kind. I have gilded, silvered, and tinned
several guinea-pigs, and all have died like the child at Florence.”