Civil War Washington

CASE 70.—Private Charles Chadburne, Co. A, 11th U. S. Inf.; age 22; admitted Aug. 10, 1862, with debility. Died Feb. 4, 1863. Post-mortem examination: Body emaciated. The surface of the heart was roughened with recent pseudomembrane and the inner surface of the pericardial sac was injected and partially roughened, but there was no adhesion; the sac contained about half a gill of serum. The right lung was collapsed to about the size of two fists and was in a condition of complete pneumonic hepatization; the pleural cavity was lined with a thick and roughened pyogenic membrane and contained about a gallon and a half of pus. The left lung, with the exception of bronchial inflammation and slight congestion, was healthy. The liver was flattened above from the purulent accumulation in the thorax, and purplish-red and darkly-spotted from engorgement of the central vessels of the lobuli; the spleen was rather soft and Indian-red on section. The stomach and intestines were generally healthy excepting some moderately and recently inflamed patches and streaks in the ileum and colon; the intestinal glands were healthy. The kidneys, though seeming somewhat fatty to the naked eye, appeared normal on microscopical examination.—Act. Ass't Surgeon J. Leidy, Satterlee Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.