Title: Scholl, Simon B.

Source text: Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, United States Army, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861–65.), Part 1, Volume 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870), 182.

Keywords:on special wounds and injuries of the headwounds and injuries of the headgunshot woundsgunshot contusions of the cranial bonesgunshot fractures of both tables of the skullballs splitting on the cranial bonesmusket ball fractured frontal bone in median line and to left, then split into two parts, , the part of ball lodged beneath right scalppart of ball splintered crista galli and lodged over ethmoidal cells, roof of which partially destroyedfatal result attributed to rudimentary state of the frontal sinus, pre-existing anatomical variationleft pupil contracted, right pupil widely dilated, both insensible to lightlarge abscess in lower part of anterior right hemispherespiculæ of bone penetrated membranes

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e13014

TEI/XML: med.d1e13014.xml


CASE.—Sergeant Simon B. Scholl, Co. E, 82d Pennsylvania Volunteers, aged 21 years, was wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania​, May, 1864, by a musket ball which penetrated and fractured the frontal bone a little to the left of and involving the median line, making an opening three-fourths by one-half inch; then split into two parts, one of which lodged beneath the scalp at a corresponding point on right side, the other splintered the crista galli in its course and lodged just over the ethmoidal cells, the roof of which it partially destroyed. The patient was insensible a short time previous to being admitted to the 3d division of the Sixth Corps Hospital. On May 24th he was sent to Mount Pleasant Hospital, Washington, and on May 30th to Cuyler Hospital, Philadelphia. On admission to the latter hospital he was much exhausted and depressed, becoming towards evening feverish, with pain in head. A portion of the ball was removed from beneath the scalp by counter opening. For two weeks the only prominent symptoms were headache, constipation, and vomiting, followed afterward by insomnia and great jactation. On June 18th the patient became almost completely comatose. He could be aroused only with difficulty and relapsed almost immediately. The left pupil became contracted, while the right was widely dilated, both being insensible to light. He died June 18th, 1864. At the autopsy the membranes were found to contain a fine arterial injection, the venous trunks also being considerably engorged. The brain presented a moderate degree of interstitial congestion. A large abscess was found in the lower part of the anterior lobe of the right hemisphere, containing about three ounces of greenish, flocculent pus, mingled with broken-down brain substance. Several spiculæ of bone were found penetrating the membranes, and a small clot of coagulable lymph showed at once the original seat of injury, and the point at which suppuration had begun. A point of interest in this case was the rudimentary state of the frontal sinus, an anatomical variation from the customary condition, to which may probably be attributed the fatal result, since the portion of the ball which in this case penetrated the cranium, would in an ordinary skull have lodged in the frontal sinus. The case is reported by Assistant Surgeon Henry S. Schell, U. S. A.