POST-MORTEM PTOMAINES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2402, 15 March 1900, Page 60

POST-MORTEM PTOMAINES.

THE FORM OF POISONING MOST DREADED BY PHYSICIANS. It is not generally known that a dead body is simply a mass of virulently poisonous matter almost immediately after death, and long before apparent decomposition sets in. Every medical man knows thi3 from his medical college days, for it is one of tho stock warnings to medical students, and one which they not infrequently disregard. Occasionally one pays the price of his carelessness with hi^life. There is probably no long-establish'eadis-secting-room in the country that hasn't in its records at least one such* death. Sometimes the victim of the poison recovers, as in the cose of a coroner's physician, who is now convalescing from the effects of blood-poisoning contracted while performing an autopsy about six weeks ago. After the autopsy he noticed that he had a slight abrasion of the skin on his left hand. He used the ontiseptic wash at once, which probably diminished the effects of the toxine, but the poison had entered his system,' and three days later he was taken iil. For some days he was in a serious condition then the poison seemed to settle in his legs, and after an operation was performed on both legs he began to mend, and was soon able to travel ; but it may be a long time before he is fully recovered.

Poisoning of this kind is from ptomaines which arc present within a very brief period after life leaves the body. Skin taken from a dying person half-an-hour before death can be grafted on a patient and will grow and form health tissue. Skin from the same person half-an-hour after death might very likely kill the patient upon whom it was grafted. There i.=< no form of blood-poisoning considered by physicians to be more dangerous than poisoning by post-mortem ptomaines. The smallest prick or scratch will admit enough of the dead tissue to cause death. Often the wound is ,so minute lhat it is not noticed by the victim at the time. He goes about his business as usual for two or three days. Then he has a sudden chill followed by fever. Jf he has any suspicion of the truth he examines his arm* carefully. On one of them he finds red lines indicating the lymphatic veins ; the unmistakable symptom, and usually the signature of his death warrant. All that remains, for him to do is to send for the brother physician in whom he has the most confidence, and hope that his constitution is strong enough to Avithstand the action of the ptomaines. If the septic action is very virulent the arm and shoulder swell, high fever with a temperature reaching to 106 or 107 degrees follows, the swelling passes to the body, which becomes discoloured, the red tracings of the ptomaines make a network over the skin, and a week or ten clays after the venom has entered the little, unnoticed scratch, the patient falls into a state of coma from which he never emerges.

A physician who has had many years of experience in medical colleges and the dissecting room, in speaking of post-mortems, said : —

" I have never failed, so far as I can remember, to warn students about using the •utmost care, in dissecting, with their knives and needles, lest they seiateh iheir hands or wrist's. .So in all Ihc medical schools there is a stringent 11112 against any person going into the dissecting room who has any kind of sore, scratch, or cut on his h>mds, but all these precautions prove insufficient sometimes. Sewing up cadavers is one gicat source of danger. The dissector is likely to be hasty or clumsy with his needle, and pricks himself. If he notices the prick he will, unless he is criminally carelens, suck the wound vigorously, for the ptomaines may be taken into the" stomnch without danger. Unless he is satisfied that he has got out all the septic matter he will cauterise freely. If he doesn't notice the wound until the symptoms make themselves known he will be fortuvate if he gets off alive, for it is almost impossible to check the poison, once it has fairly enteied tho sy&i' m."

1 A. ciu'ioyb forgi gf fiaat-Kioi'fcegL £oifioniu£

is a sort of warty excrescence which ap» pears upon the hands of embalmers, morgue keepers, and others who habitually handle dead bodies, and is known scientifically as Verruka necrogenica. * It is very difficult; to root out, and in some cases results apparently in ptomaine poisoning, as the chills, fever and swelling of this poisoning follow its spread. Only less dangerous than poisoning from a dead body is poisoning from the dead tissue of a live person, though the sceptic process is different.' Physicians operating upon gangrened limbs are obliged to exercise the greatest care. Not long ago a Brooklyn doctor,, while thua operating and bending over the affected part got a drop of blood from it on the inner part of his nose. Despite all his precautions the organ soon bec-me sore and began to swell. In a short time ifc was as big as his fist. Another physician was called in to treaty him, and after a, week, during which time his life hung on the question of whether the poison would tend upward to the brain or not, the-pa-tient was informed that his life would be s-aved, but his nose would have to go. He begged a respite for his nose, and the poison subsided, leaving that organ as good as' new except for one small scar. — New York Sun.