Civil War Washington

CASE 24.—Serg't John Brunskill, Co. I, 99th Pa.; age 50; admitted Nov. 23, 1863. Died 27th. Post-mortem examination: The brain was healthy. The pharynx was dark-purple; the œsophagus of a white color above, stone- blue mixed with ochre color below. The epiglottis was not thickened but highly injected, especially at its free edge; at the central basil​ portion was a darkened spot about the size of a pea. The vocal chords were ulcerated posteriorly, the ulcers linear, with high, roundish, pale walls and the mucous membrane around of a dark-purplish color. The sides of the larynx, below this point, were of a stone-blue color and considerably injected. The trachea was intensely purple but not thickened. The bronchial glands were large and blackened. The first and second lobes of the right lung were slightly engorged, the third lobe splenified; weight of lung thirty-five ounces. The left lung was hepatized gray; its central portion was of a darker hue than the rest of the tissue and appeared to be in the last stage of red hepatization; weight seventy-five ounces. The heart contained venous clots on both sides. The liver was healthy but weighed ninety-five ounces; the gall-bladder was empty; the spleen, dark and pultaceous, weighed ten ounces; the pancreas, firm and whitish, four ounces; the kidneys were intensely congested. —Ass't Surgeon Harrison Allen, U. S. A., Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.