Civil War Washington

CASE 23.—Private James W. Bates, Co. F, 25th N. Y. Cav.; age 53; was admitted Dec. 5, 1864, with acute bronchitis. Counter-irritants, expectorants and stimulants were employed. He died on the 18th. Post-mortem examination: Body well developed. The trachea and larynx contained a quantity of frothy rust-colored sputa​. There were slight pleuritic adhesions on both sides and each cavity contained about an ounce of thin liquid. Both lungs were greatly congested; on section a large quantity of frothy rust-colored fluid exuded, but no portion of either lung sank in water; the right lung weighed fifty-two ounces, the left twenty-eight and a half. The left cavities of the heart contained small fibrinous clots. The liver was considerably congested and weighed fifty-three ounces and a half; the spleen seven ounces. There were cysts in both kidneys; the pelves were distended and the ureters enlarged to about half an inch in diameter. The intestines were normal. [Specimens 455 and 456, A. M. M., are from this case, and show the enlargement of the pelves and distention of the ureters, together with the cysts, the largest of which is about the size of a shellbark.]—Act. Ass't Surgeon H. M. Dean, Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.