Civil War Washington

CASE.—Private T. M. J——, Co. H, 45th North Carolina Regiment, aged 38 years, was wounded at Silver Spring, near Washington, July 12th, 1864, by a conoidal ball, which entered at the middle of the superior border of the right temporal bone, and passing transversely, fractured both tables of the skull. He was taken prisoner and conveyed to the Lincoln Hospital, Washington, on the 17th, being conscious at the time. On the 27th, the wound was enlarged and fragments of bone were removed. The wound was in a healthy condition, and the patient's pulse full and regular. Convulsions, followed by paralysis of the right side, succeeded the operation. These symptoms continued until the 29th, when he became comatose. Mercurial purgatives, cold applications, friction and sinapisms to the extremities, were used without avail. The patient sank rapidly, and died on the 29th. The post-mortem examination revealed a fragment of bone, about one inch in diameter, lying upon the brain substance. An abscess existed about the size of an English walnut. The brain substance of the right lobe was much softened and congested, and the ventricles were filled with serous fluid. The vault of the cranium was preserved, and is figured in the wood-cut. Fragments have been removed from an elliptical space, measuring one by one and one-fourth inches. The posterior half of the sagittal suture is separated, and five fissures radiate from the fractured point. The edges of the opening are necrosed, cribriform, and crumbling. The specimen and history were contributed by Acting Assistant Surgeon T. L. Leavitt.

[Editor's Note: No wood-cut figure appears with this case in the published MSHWR, Part 1, Volume 2.]