Civil War Washington

CASE 100.—Private Levi Beech, Co. D, 1st Mich. Cav.; age 36; was admitted October 27, 1864, with a contusion of the left side caused by the kick of a horse. He was feeble; the spleen was much enlarged, occupying nearly the whole of the left lumbar region and parts of the umbilical and left inguinal region, He had suffered from ague eight years before for fourteen months, the disease intermitting occasionally for about a week at a time. After admission his appetite was variable, and he lost flesh although his bowels were regular. He was treated with citrate of iron and quinia, stimulants and nourishing diet. He was able to be about the ward and out of doors; occasionally he had some cough. About noon on December 31 he became speechless and unable to swallow. He died at 6 P.M. Post-mortem examination: No rigor mortis. The brain was normal; its membranes somewhat adherent to the medulla and pons. The right cavities of the heart were distended and a greenish-white, soft, almost pus-like clot floated in the ventricle. The right lung was somewhat congested and adhered by old firm fibrinous bands; the left lung was congested by hypostasis; one or two glands at the root of the left lung contained cheesy and chalky matters. The liver was large and bloodless; its portal veins filled with soft yellow clots. The spleen weighed sixty-eight ounces and adhered to the diaphragm and stomach; its veins contained soft greenish clots; a secondary spleen the size of an unhusked walnut was found at the head of the pancreas. The mesenteric glands were indurated and about the size of a pea. The ileum and colon were normal. The psoæ muscles were softened and their surfaces blackened. The external iliac arteries contained blood. The kidneys were white and fatty. Microscopically the greenish-white clots of the heart and blood vessels consisted of granules and polynucleated cells, many of the latter a little larger than a blood corpuscle, but the majority much larger.—Third Division Hospital, Alexandria, Va..