Appearances upon opening the body of a woman, who died the beginning of August 1762, after eating a large quantity of Cucumbers.

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IT may be necessary to observe, that this unhappy woman had all the symptoms of a bilious cholic, to the most extreme degree, from the time of her being first attacked to the time of her death, which was three days after her eating the Cucumbers.

IN a few hours after she expired, I opened the body, and found the stomach distended and swelled to the size of a child’s head, but of a more oblong form, and resembling in figure and tension a large bladder filled with wind: the external or membranous coat of the stomach appeared florid and inflamed; and upon making an incision through that and the subjacent coats, a most amazing quantity of sliced Cucumbers, porraceous matter, and vesicles filled with air, issued out at the opening. The circular valve of the pylorus was extremely rigid and strongly contracted; the duodenum and jejunum were inflamed, and the ilium so much inflated, as to render it impossible for any thing to pass through it. The colon, caecum, and rectum were not so much inflamed as the lesser intestines; but, what was very extraordinary, the lower part of the latter was mortified for several inches: the lungs, particularly some part of the left lobe, appeared as if they had been boiled, with several livid spots dispersed over them. The liver, spleen and uterus were the only viscera which preserved their natural complexion. There was but little gall in the gall-bladder, which was, probably, occasioned by the great separation made of the gall by the uncommon fulness of the stomach; which serves to confirm the opinion of anatomists, that the separation of the gall is always in equal proportion to the fulness of the stomach. The pancreas, pleura, and mediastinum were inflamed; a very large quantity of water was found in the pericardium; the kidnies were inflamed, and the vesica was in a very flaccid state, without containing any urine. The patient, I was informed, had had frequent motions to urine for some time before her death, but was never capable of making a drop.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….W.P.
Malling
Feb 5th, 1763.

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From:
The medical museum: or, A repository of cases, experiments, researches, and discoveries, collected at home and abroad. … By gentlemen of the faculty. Vol. Volume 1. London [England],  MDCCLXIII. [1763-<1764>]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale. The Wellcome Trust. 15 Apr. 2010