Title: ——, X.

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), 250.

Keywords:on special wounds and injuries of the headwounds and injuries of the headgunshot woundsgunshot fractures of the cranial bonesremoval of fragments after gunshot fractures of the skullfatal cases of gunshot fractures of the skull treated by the removal or elevation fragmentstreated by operation, not by formal trephiningextent of injury ascertained with precision, organic alterations accurately observedconoidal ball perforated frontal bone to right of median line, dura mater penetrated, splinters driven into brainpupils dilated, right side and bladder paralyzed, deglutition difficultfrontal and temporal bones fissured, fracture of temporal bone extending nearly to earconoidal ball found in middle lobe of right hemisphereautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e16344

TEI/XML: med.d1e16344.xml


CASE.—Captain X. ——, a Confederate officer, was admitted into Stanton Hospital, Washington, on May 18th, 1864, in a comatose condition. He had been wounded at Spottsylvania​ on the 12th by a conoidal ball, which perforated the frontal bone to the right of the median line. The dura mater was penetrated, and several splinters were driven into the brain. On May 19th, he was still in a comatose condition; the pupils widely dilated; breathing stertorous, with puffing of the corners of the mouth; right side and bladder paralyzed; pulse 108, and full; deglutition difficult. Assistant Surgeon George A. Mursick, U. S. V., enlarged the wound by a crucial​ incision, and removed several large splinters with an elevator. Ice was applied to the head, and a stimulating enema was ordered, and the urine was drawn off by a catheter. On the following morning the coma was yet more profound, and the patient died during the day, May 20th, 1864. At the autopsy, the right frontal and temporal bones were found to be fissured, the fracture of the temporal bone extending nearly to the ear. A conoidal ball was found in the middle lobe of the right hemisphere; also a plastic exudation on the vertex, between the dura mater and the arachnoid. The pathological specimen is No. 2683, Sect. I, A. M. M. The opening in the frontal bone is elliptical, measuring three-fourths by one and one-half inches. The fractured surface of the inner table is the larger. The specimen and history were contributed by Assistant Surgeon George A. Mursick, U. S. V.