Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1879 — A Drunkard’s Body After Death. [ARTICLE]

A Drunkard’s Body After Death.

A post-mortem examination of nearly seventy persons who had died from the excessive use of ardent spirits showed the following facts: • 1. Congestion of the scalp and of the membranes of the brain, with much serous (watery) effusion; the of the brain white and firm, as if it had lain in alcohol for one or two hours. 2. The lungs not always, but frequently, congested or inflamed. 3. The heart flabby, enlarged, dilated and loaded with fat on the outside, the blood in it of cherry-red color, and with no tendency to coagulate, 4. The stomach perfectly white, and thickened in some cases; in others, having patches of chronic inflammation. In the worst cases the large portion of the stomach covered with that species of inflammation which causes the blood to be poured from the minute veins. 5. The liver enlarged—in old drunkards weighing from six to twelve pounds. 6. The omentum —a sort of apron which immediately covers the abdomen in front—loaded with a gray, slushy fat. 7. The kidneys enlarged, flabby, and infiltrated in numerous spots with a whitish matter. 8. The small intestines filled with bile and coated with tenacious mucus 9. The blood in a very fluid condition, having but little fibrine, but much albumen and fat. 10. The whole body, except the brain, decomposing very rapidly. Is it a wonder that “ a drunkards hath woes?”