Civil War Washington

One of eight cases observed at the FREEDMAN'S HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., during 1865, 1866, and 1867.⃰ In none of them were the patients soldiers. Five are of interest as examples of tubercular ulceration of the intestines. Besides the specimens from these cases, several other examples of tubercular ulceration of the intestines are preserved at the Museum, which were obtained from autopsies of colored women who died at the same hospital during the period mentioned. . . . In all of them extensive tubercular deposits were found in the lungs and other organs. Most of the specimens are portions of the ileum with tubercular ulcers of the mucous membrane and miliary tubercles on the peritoneal surface opposite:

CASE 867.—George Washington; negro; age 50; admitted August 2, 1866. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, August 4th. Autopsy six hours after death: Rigor mortis marked; no emaciation; height five feet two inches and a half; weight about 135 pounds; has lost the last two phalanges of the middle, ring and little fingers of the left hand, (old stumps.) The subarachnoid fluid was unusually abundant. The brain weighed forty-seven ounces and a half; the venous sinuses contained black coagula. There were scattered tubercles in both lungs, with adhesions posteriorly, especially on the right side; the right lung weighed thirteen ounces and a half, the left lung ten ounces. The heart weighed ten ounces and a half; the walls of its left ventricle were hypertrophied, the edges of the tricuspid valve thickened; both sides of the heart contained fibrinous clots. There were extensive peritoneal adhesions. The liver was hard, rounded, and contained a number of metastatic foci in its right lobe; it weighed fifty-six ounces and a half; the gall-bladder was distended with bile. The spleen was very small, its Malpighian bodies distinct. The pancreas was light colored and weighed two ounces. The small intestine was healthy. The colon was thickened and extensively ulcerated, with elevated patches of pseudomembrane between the ulcers. The kidneys weighed five ounces and a half; the cortical substance of both had a waxy appearance; the pyramids were pinkish red.—Assistant Surgeon E. Bentley, U. S. A. [No. 849, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, is from this case. The specimen is a portion of the colon which is much thickened, and presents extensive jagged ulcers from the edges of which the mucous membrane hangs in shreds; there is some adherent pseudomembrane between the ulcers. ]

⃰ During this period two of the hospital stewards on duty in the Museum, D. S. Lamb and S. S. Bond, were frequently sent to the Freedman's Hospital for the purpose of making autopsies. A considerable number of specimens illustrative of the diseases of the freedmen were thus obtained.