I will ask you, did it ever in the course of your practice happen to you to examine a body that had died of Cholera Morbus?—I attended a patient, but I can state the reasons why I did not do so.
Don’t state the reasons why you did not. Then you never did open any body that had died of Cholera Morbus?—Never.
You have opened bodies after death?—Yes, Sir, a great many.
In cases of mere accident, where death has been produced by violent injury arising from accident, have you ever had occasion to ascertain the state of such a body as that?—I have.
How long ago?—Eight or nine years ago.
What was the accident that occasioned the death?—A fractured skull.
How long after the death was the body opened?—It was either upon the second or the third day.
What was the state of the stomach of that person?—Highly vascular, which would lead any one unaccustomed to the complaint, to mistake it as arising from inflammation.
Now explain what you mean by the terms ‘highly vascular’?—The congestion of numerous blood-vessels.
Is there any thing as to the state of the hardness or softness of the coats of the stomach, upon which any judgment can rest?—I should suspect that as it is inflamed, the coats of the stomach would be thickened and soft; for as the inflammation takes place, the parts increase in size.