It is the most rapid and unerring of all the common poisons, and produces death generally within an hour, although a large dose may prove fatal in two or three minutes, and a smaller one may be survived for as long as twenty-three days. The mucous membrane of the throat and œsophagus look as if scalded, and can easily be scraped off. The stomach contains a thick fluid, commonly dark, like coffee-grounds. The inner coat of the stomach is pulpy, in some points black, in others red. The mucous membrane of the intestines is usually similarly, but less violently affected. In some cases, the stomach and intestines have been found healthy. =Phosphorus.= This substance has frequently, in the form of heads of lucifer matches, been the cause of death; more frequently taken by accident, or with the intention of committing suicide, than with the design of destroying the lives of others. The symptoms of phosphorus poisoning vary during life, and after death the morbid appearances are not constant, depending much upon the length of time that has elapsed before death. In cases which have proved rapidly fatal, the main appearances are those of irritation, somewhat similar to those already described, and due to the direct action of the poison. In more protracted cases there is generally jaundice, the blood is found in a state of complete fluidity, non-coagulable, and with very few corpuscles, while ecchymoses and sanguineous effusions appear everywhere. Sometimes the stomach is distended with gas, which stinks of garlic. The mucous membrane is partly ash-colored, partly of a dark, purplish-red, and exhibits gangrenous ulcers which penetrate deeply into the muscular coat. In recent cases, the whole contents of the stomach shine in the dark, especially when gently warmed. The liver is greatly altered, an acute fatty degeneration is found to have taken place in its secreting structure. The acini are sometimes found filled with fat, even to bursting; but more commonly they are wholly destroyed, and oil and fat globules fill their place. The secreting structures of the kidneys are also found in a state of fatty degeneration, and the ducts are sometimes filled with exudation matter. The heart and the muscles generally also show signs of the same fatty degeneration. =Arsenic.= This is the poison most frequently chosen for the purpose of committing both suicide and murder. Arsenic produces two classes of phenomena, one is purely irritant, by virtue of which it induces inflammation in the alimentary canal and elsewhere; and the other consists in a disorder of parts of organs remote from the seat of its application. It is absorbed by the blood, which in most cases of acute poisoning, is found in a remarkable state of fluidity, and can be detected in the liver, the spleen, and in the urine. It acts with nearly the same energy, whatever be the organ or tissue to which it is applied.