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The stomach was much distended with flatus, and its villous coat partially and slightly inflamed. A large quantity of bloody serum issued from the mouth.
Remarks. — This post mortem examination was very satisfactory, and to me very interesting, as explaining the cause of such inordinate action of the heart, as I had scarcely ever before witnessed; and which, upon minute inquiry, I found was believed to have existed from the time she had measles, when very young. The irritability of the stomach remaining, and the vomiting continuing for twenty-four hours after she came on shore, may, by some, be thought singular, when the cause of such sea-sickness was not acting; but such an effect is not uncommon, and, in one instance, I recollect its continuance for more than two months, in defiance of every remedy which could be thought of; no doubt, in this instance, some inflammation affected the heart itself, and also the left lung, although there were no striking diagnostics, which led either Mr. Hensman or myself to suspect it even fourteen hours before she died. The surprise with me is not that she should sink under the common effects of sea-sickness, but that she survived with so little inconvenience, from the first time I saw her^ in Sept. 1812, to July, 1821, a period of more than nine years.
It may be worthy of notice that a younger sister of the above patient consulted me, a few years afterwards, at the age of about 18, for a formidable palpitation of the heart, which gave way to the usual remedies. And, still later, the mother came from Dublin to be under my care, and died from hydro thorax, which, I have no doubt, derived its origin from organic disease of the heart.
