Civil War Washington

The following case from the case-book of McDOUGAL HOSPITAL, Fort Schuyler, New York harbor, Assistant Surgeon Havilah M. Sprague, U. S. A., in charge.

CASE 106.—Private Steward D. Middaugh, company C, 109th New York volunteers; age 18; admitted from Washington, D. C., June 22, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. [The records of Mount Pleasant hospital, Washington, D. C., show that this man was admitted June 15th from the field hospital of the 9th Army Corps, White House Landing, Virginia. The diagnosis on the register is convalescent from typhoid fever. He was sent to New York June 21st, and admitted to this hospital at the date given above.] He stated that he had been sick three months. For three days before death he had clonic spasms, lasting from three to ten minutes at intervals, during which consciousness was interrupted, and the heart's action was hurried, feeble, and irregular. He died August 11th, during one of these spasms. Autopsy eight hours after death: The thoracic viscera, liver, spleen, and kidneys were normal. The mucous membrane of the stomach was softened. Both small and large intestines were congested, inflamed, and ulcerated. [There is no record of any examination of the brain or spinal cord.]