CASE 155.—Sergeant James
Geddis, Co. L,
6th Mich. Cav.; age 33; admitted Aug. 18, 1863. Died 22d. Post-mortem examination nineteen
hours after death: The brain was firm and healthy. The
trachea was of a dark-purple color, tinged with ochre on the
rings; the bronchial tubes contained a dark grumous
secretion. The œsophagus was yellowish throughout.
The lungs were somewhat œdematous, the right
weighing twenty ounces and the left twenty-one ounces. The
heart was pushed upwards by the intestines; the right
ventricle contained a fibrinous clot which extended some
distance into the pulmonary artery; the left cavities
contained a soft venous clot; the aorta was highly colored.
The liver and stomach were concealed by the intestines; the
liver was firm; the gall-bladder contained twelve drachms of
dark-colored bile with a yellow flocculent deposit; the
spleen was compact and of a dark-purple color; the pancreas
was dark-green externally, hard and white internally. The
intestines were much distended, evidently from cadaveric
changes; the lower third of the small intestine was
ulcerated in several places, in one of which there was a
circular perforation with pale white edges, and the
peritoneum surrounding it blackened to the extent of the
Peyer's patch affected and covered with tough yellowish
lymph for some distance beyond; the large intestine was
healthy except that its solitary glands were conspicuous.
The kidneys were dark-purple in color.—Ass't
Surg. H. Allen, U. S. A., Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D.
C.