Civil War Washington

CASE 128.—Captain D. W. Parks, Co. E, 54th N.C.; age 33; admitted May 10, 1863. Died June 12. Post-mortem examination: The brain was healthy. The mucous membrane of the trachea was softened, pale in its upper portion and purplish towards the bifurcation. The right lung weighed twenty-two ounces and a half; the whole of its lower lobe and the posterior portions of the other lobes were solidified and contained circumscribed collections of pus; the middle and lower lobes were interadherent and coated with yellowish lymph. The left lung weighed eighteen ounces; its lower lobe was affected like that on the opposite side, but it was less firmly solidified and contained fewer pus deposits; the left pleural sac contained sixteen ounces of pus. Two ounces of liquid were found in the pericardium; venous clots and uncoagulated blood in the right cavities of the heart, and a small clot in the left side. The liver weighed fifty-eight ounces; the spleen, nineteen ounces, was extremely soft; the pancreas and kidneys normal. Some regions of hyperæmia were observed in the small intestine, but the large intestine was healthy.—Ass't Surgeon Harrison Allen, U. S. A., Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.