Civil War Washington

CASE 23.—Private Milo Bray, 4th N. Y. Batt'y; age 25: admitted Aug. 28, 1863. Died October 8. Post-mortem examination: The brain was firm and its vessels, especially those of the pia mater, injected. The larynx and trachea were lined throughout by false membrane, which covered both surfaces of the epiglottis; the underlying mucous membrane was of an intense purplish-red color. [Specimen 10, Med. Sec., Army Medical Museum.] The œsophagus was very pale. The right lung, twenty-three ounces, was well filled with air except in its third lobe, which was intensely congested, and in the lower part of its first lobe, which was carnified; the left lung, nineteen ounces, showed carnified portions here and there among healthy tissue and the bronchial tubes of its lower lobe contained a false membrane similar to that found in the trachea. The pleuræ enclosed twenty-six ounces of dark-red serum, contained chiefly in the right cavity. Mixed clots were found in the right cavities of the heart and venous clots in the left cavities, aorta, venæ cavæ and pulmonary artery; the pericardium contained eight ounces of straw-colored serum. The liver and intestines were healthy, the kidneys congested, and the spleen, which weighed twelve ounces and a half, was dark-colored and pultaceous.—Ass't Surgeon H. Allen, U. S. A., Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.