Civil War Washington

CASE 98.—Private Charles Octmier, Co. G, 79th Pa. Vols.; age 45; was admitted May 17, 1865, with diarrhœa of six weeks' duration, two to six stools daily, but with no pain nor fever; his feet were ædematous, which condition was ascribed to hard marching. Delirium of an acute character was developed on the 20th, the patient talking loudly, making frightful grimaces and constantly seeking to leave his bed. Next day at 8 A. M. his pupils were dilated and he was unable to recognize any one; pulse rapid and feeble; tongue dry and parched; stools and urine passed involuntarily; a purple petechial rash appeared over the body, especially on the abdomen. At 9.30 A. M. he slept quietly. Two hours later he was in collapse and gasping for breath; pupils much contracted. He died at 1 P. M. Post-mortem examination twenty-three hours after death: There was much emaciation. The lungs were adherent on both sides, congested posteriorly and contained crude tubercle and several chalky concretions; the apex of the right lung contained also a small vomica about the size of the thumb-nail. There were two ounces of yellow transparent serum and two yellow coagula in the pericardium; on the surface of the heart was a serous effusion which appeared around the auricular appendices as a jelly. There were three ounces of a turbid, reddish liquid in the abdominal cavity; the mesenteric glands were softened; the liver was small and soft; the spleen semi-fluid; the kidneys normal; the stomach eroded and ecchymosed; Peyer's patches exhibited the shaven-beard appearance; the rectum was much ulcerated; the bladder distended with urine.—Douglas Hospital, Washington, D. C.