The damage done to the tissues by strong caustics, such as fuming nitric
acid, sulphuric acid, caustic potash, nitrate of silver, or arsenical
paste, presents pathological and clinical features almost identical with
those resulting from heat. Electricity and the Rontgen rays also produce
lesions of the nature of burns.
_Pathology of Burns._--Much discussion has taken place regarding the
explanation of the rapidly fatal issue in extensive superficial burns.
On post-mortem examination the lesions found in these cases are: (1)
general hyperaemia of all the organs of the abdominal, thoracic, and
cerebro-spinal cavities; (2) marked leucocytosis, with destruction of
red corpuscles, setting free haemoglobin which lodges in the epithelial
cells of the tubules of the kidneys; (3) minute thrombi and
extravasations throughout the tissues of the body; (4) degeneration of
the ganglion cells of the solar plexus; (5) oedema and degeneration of
the lymphoid tissue throughout the body; (6) cloudy swelling of the
liver and kidneys, and softening and enlargement of the spleen. Bardeen
suggests that these morbid phenomena correspond so closely to those met
with where the presence of a toxin is known to produce them, that in all
probability death is similarly due to the action of some poison produced
by the action of heat on the skin and on the proteins of the blood.
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