Civil War Washington

CASE.—Colonel Patrick R. Guiney, 9th Massachusetts Volunteers, was wounded at the battle of the Wilderness, May 5th, 1864, by a conoidal musket ball, which entered just above the inner angle of the left eye and passed across the orbit and behind the malar bone and zygoma to near the ear, where it lodged. The missile fissured the frontal bone at the inner extremity of the supra-orbital ridge quite deeply, and must have penetrated the frontal sinus. The eye was destroyed, and, in removing the ball, Steno's duct was severed. He was admitted to the hospital of the 1st division, Fifth Corps, and, on May 12th, sent to Washington, where he received a leave of absence on May 14th, 1864M. He was mustered out of service on June 21st, 1864, and pensioned. For a year after the reception of the injury a salivary fistula continued to discharge, when one day the discharge ceased suddenly with a sensation of an electric thrill. No discharge recurred, but the thrill is renewed whenever, in shaving, the razor touches the cicatrix. Although the wound was not immediately connected with the brain it has affected it in its functions. He is unable to concentrate his thoughts for any length of time without suffering from dizziness and confusion of ideas, the dizziness becoming so decided at times, as to necessitate the grasping of objects near him for support. Since the war, while serving as Assistant District Attorney at Boston, he has been obliged to bathe his head, during the session of the court, to enable him to attend to his duty. He is now, February 1st, 1870, wholly unfitted to attend to his duties by reason of pneumo-hydrothorax. The case is reported by Dr. P. A. O'Connell, late Surgeon 9th Massachusetts Volunteers.