CASE.—Private Otis G——, Co. C, 16th Maine
Volunteers, aged 21 years, who was a very stout
and vigorous person, weighing 180 pounds, was
struck, at the affair on the Weldon Railroad,
August 18th, 1864, upon the top of the head by a
conoidal musket ball, which produced a fracture of
the skull one inch posterior to the coronal
suture. On the following day he was admitted into
the field hospital of the 3d division, Fifth Corps, where he remained until the 21st, when he
was conveyed to Washington, and admitted into the
Lincoln Hospital. Ice-water dressings were applied
to the head, and sedatives were administered. In
the progress of the case, fragments of both the
outer and inner tables were removed, leaving the
brain exposed. The patient failed rapidly, and died apparently
from exhaustion on August 30th, 18631864. At the autopsy, the scalp in the vicinity of the wound
was found to he infiltrated with pus, the
periosteum being easily detached. The fracture
involved both parietal bones, measuring one-half
by one inch, the longest diameter running at right
angles with the sagittal suture. Upon the removal
of the calvarium, the depressed portion of bone
was held in position by the dura mater. Through
both tables of the left parietal bone, from the
place of injury to the posterior inferior angle,
ran a fissure, along which traces of an attempt at
repair were observed. The meninges in the vicinity
were congested and thickened. In the left
hemisphere a cerebral abscess existed, extending
from the surface of the brain to a level with the
corpus callosum, three-fourths of an inch in
diameter. The contiguous portion of brain was much
softened, as was the right hemisphere within the
limits of the fracture. The pathological specimen
is No. 3150, Sect. I, A. M. M., and was
contributed by Acting Assistant Surgeon H. M. Dean.