Account of a remarkable case of suicide, with observations on the fatal issue of the rapid introduction of air in large quantity into the circulation during surgical operations / [Peter David Handside].

  • Handyside, P. D. (Peter David), 1808-1881
Date:
[1838]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a remarkable case of suicide, with observations on the fatal issue of the rapid introduction of air in large quantity into the circulation during surgical operations / [Peter David Handside]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cutting into the liver under the surface of water, after a manner similar to that followed in all the preceding and subsequent ex¬ periments, air was observed to escape from the hepatic veins ; and on treating the spleen and kidney in a similar way, like re¬ sults were obtained. The pancreas, and the coronary veins of the stomach presented also the same results. The abdominal aorta, on being carefully insulated for three inches in extent by ligatures applied above and below, and also to its branches, and then placed under the surface of water, gave vent on being open¬ ed to several globules of air. Thq femoral and popliteal and the brachial arteries, upon being similarly treated were observed to contain air. All the viscera of the thorax and abdomen, with the excep¬ tion of a few slight adhesions observed between the pleura of the lung and that covering the pericardium, and some patches of coagulable lymph, not recently effused, found over the right side of the heart, were perfectly healthy. The liver, pancreas, spleen, and stomach, were paler in colour than natural ; the stomach was empty, and the gall-bladder was distended with bile. The muscles, with the exception already given, were natural both in colour and texture. That the air found in the blood-vessels in the foregoing case was not effused as a result of the putrefactive process, appears, not only from the circumstance of the shortness of the interval and other circumstances that elapsed from the death of the indivi¬ dual to the examination of the body, but from the consideration also, of that air having been found commixed after a frothy man¬ ner with the blood in the vessels, an appearance which is not com¬ patible with simple decomposition, though the converse of this, (the air and blood remaining wholly unmixed after violent death) has been occasionally observed. Having remarked in turning over the records of cases bearing on the subject of the present communication, * the very scanty and unsatisfactory amount of the details of the necroscopic ap¬ pearances which the narrative of almost all of these cases presents, j* * For an able analysis of these cases, which supplies the place of any historical summary that I might have offered here, I beg to refer to the American Cyclop, of Pract. Med. and Surg. Part iii. p. 203, Philadelphia, January 1834, Art. Air, by Dr Warren of Harvard University, as well as to the recent work by the same au¬ thor, “ Surg. Obs. on Tumours,” p 259—301 ; to some valuable editorial remarks on these cases in the 48th Vol. of this Journal, p. 554, and to Dr Cormack's Prize Thesis, p. 21, Edinburgh, 1837- Dr. Cormack has contributed to our knowledge of this subject by giving the details of several additional experiments which he perform¬ ed on the lower animals. -f- As exceptions, I may mention the case of M. Beauchene, which occurred in the Ilopital St Antoine, Paris, in 1818, and some of the details of which are given in Magendie’s Journ. de Physiol. Tom. i. p. 192, and Dupuytren’s case narrated in the Archiv. Gen. de. Med. Tom. v. p. 430. Paris, 1824.