Civil War Washington

Case from the case-book of LINCOLN HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C.; Surgeon J. Cooper McKee, U. S. A., in charge.

CASE 399.—Private Greenleaf P. Foster, company K, 18th Massachusetts volunteers; age 36; admitted from the field February 3, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, March 4th, of delirium tremens. Autopsy eighteen hours after death: Height five feet six inches; rigor mortis well marked; body not much emaciated. The brain weighed forty-five ounces, and was apparently healthy; very little fluid was found in the ventricles. The lining membrane of the trachea was very much congested. There were numerous firm adhesions at the apex of the right lung; the lung weighed twenty-one ounces; it was very much congested throughout; in the posterior portion of its upper lobe there was a circumscribed patch about the size of a walnut, which was of a dark-mulberry color and sank in water; the left lung weighed twenty-one ounces; nearly the whole of its surface was coated by recent lymph, and the pleural sac contained forty-eight ounces of serum; the upper lobe of the left lung was congested, purple on section, and exuded a large amount of frothy fluid; the lower lobe was carnified. The pericardium contained an ounce and a half of fluid. The heart was apparently healthy, weight nine ounces; a large fibrinous clot was found in the right ventricle, and a very small venous clot in the left ventricle. The mucous membrane of the œsophagus was very pale. The stomach was well distended; its mucous membrane very soft and of a dusky-brown color. The intestines were much distended with gas; the mucous membrane of the duodenum and jejunum was of a very light color, nearly white; for about a foot of the upper part of the ileum, and about two feet of the lower portion, the mucous membrane was of a pinkish hue; the mucous membrane of the large intestine was of a dirty light-bluish color. The liver weighed seventy-one ounces; it was very friable; its capsule readily separated; its color a little lighter than natural. The pancreas was healthy, weight three ounces. The spleen weighed five ounces, was very firm, and of a light color. Both kidneys were healthy; the right weighed six ounces, the left seven ounces.—Acting Assistant Surgeon H. M. Dean.