But the most distinguishing symptom, and that which is expressive of the greatest danger, is, an unconquerable irritability in the stomach, which can be brought to bear nothing. An almost incessant retching takes place, which commonly, on the third day, ends in what is called the _black vomit_, the most hopeless of all the symptoms attending it. When this is examined, the colour is found to be owing to small dark flakes, resembling the grounds of coffee, and seems to be blood which had oozed from the surface of the stomach, a little altered. Indeed pure blood is sometimes thrown up, and we know that the red globules enter the smaller order of vessels, and issue by them; for bleeding at the nose is a common symptom about this time; and some relate that it also escapes by the ears and pores of the skin, which I never saw, but can readily believe it. At the same time, the stools grow black, and the urine is frequently of a very dark colour, which seem to be owing to the same cause. I never remember to have seen any one recover after these symptoms came on. There seems to be a general _error loci_ of the more tenacious and globular parts of the blood into the smaller order of vessels, to which the yellow colour is in a great measure owing; and when any part of the skin is ever so little pressed upon, a damask red colour remains for some time, the small vessels readily admitting the red globules. It is certain that a yellow colour of the skin may be produced by such an _error loci_, without any suspicion of the presence of bile. We have an illustration of this in the ecchymosis which follows upon an external contusion. In this case the red part of the blood is mechanically forced either into the smaller order of vessels, or into the cellular membrane, which occasions a livid appearance, and in the course of the recovery the same parts become yellow, probably in consequence of some of the gluten of the blood assuming this colour after the red parts have been removed by absorption or otherwise. In the worst form of this disease there is all along an uncommonly distressing sensation of universal anguish, particularly about the stomach, where there is a sense of burning heat, which, as the miserable sufferers themselves express it, becomes unspeakable torture. A sense of weight at the breast, deep and frequent sighing, and a great failure of muscular strength, are dangerous symptoms in all stages of the disease.