hypogastrium, and epigastrium, upon the edge of a pail, which he held in his hand, as the sixth step of a ladder, upon which he was standing, suddenly broke; his death happened ten hours after the accident, and upon dissection, the right lobe of the liver was discovered divided, in an oblique direction, through its whole substance, from its extremity on the right side, to the border of the left lobe; the two portions being only connected by the vena cava, and the trunks of the venæ cavæ hepaticæ.
The author has been informed by Dr. Harrison that, while at Mantua, he saw a man who had received a kick on the right hypochondrium from a horse that he was shoeing; he did not complain of much pain at the time, but exhibited an anxious countenance, and was attacked with coffee-ground vomiting. He died on the following day, and upon opening the abdomen the liver was found ruptured, and the peritoneum inflamed.[1]
The spleen may be brought into view for our examination by drawing the stomach towards the right side, when the one viscus will follow the other. This organ, like the liver, may be ruptured by violence; of which we have already cited an instance[2].
The pancreas is to be seen by tearing through the great omentum, between the large curve of the stomach, and the arch of the colon. The anatomist will
- ↑ See also "Cases of Ruptured Spleen and Liver from external injury," by Dr. Chisholm. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. for July, 1811.
- ↑ See the case of Bartholomew Quain, vol. ii, p. 123. In the year 1801 Richard Starke was executed at Newgate for the wilful murder of Mary, his wife, in Clement's Lane, by dragging her on the floor by the hair of her head, and inhumanly kicking her. Mr. Crowther and Mr. Andre, surgeons, were of opinion that she died in consequence of the rupture of the spleen, which appeared to them to have been occasioned by bruises.
