Civil War Washington

CASE.—Private James M——, 2d New York Cavalry, aged 35 years, was admitted to the 2d division hospital, Alexandria, Virginia, October 28th, 1864, from the Orange and Alexandria Railroad depot, with a pistol shot wound of the left side of the spine, fracturing the twelfth dorsal vertebra, said to have been received in action. When admitted, he was much depressed; pulse about 130; tongue very thick and heavily coated; a great deal of pain over the abdomen and right side. His bowels had not moved for three days. There was incontinence of urine. All below a direct line from wound to pubis was paraplegic. About three pints of very thick and dark-colored urine were drawn off with a catheter. Stimulants, tonics, and a cathartic were given, with an anodyne at night. Under this treatment, he began to improve, and did well until November 15th, when a bad cough set in. On the 18th, in a fit of violent coughing, hæmoptysis occurred to the amount of a quart. Death occurred in one-half hour afterward. At the necropsy, upon opening the spinal column posteriorly from the second dorsal vertebra to the sacrum, the muscular tissue in the lumbar region was found to be very dark and softened. No abscesses or infiltrated pus could be detected in it. Upon removing the spinal cord the dura mater was found congested and firmly adherent to the vertebrae. The substance of the cord looked very red. The ball had passed between the arches of the twelfth dorsal and the first lumbar vertebrae, then through the body of the twelfth dorsal on the right side, outside of the spinal meninges. Its further track could not be traced. In making this examination, the cavity of the right pleura was opened and from it escaped about three pints of dark bloody fluid, which emitted a very offensive odor. The pathological specimens are numbered 3449 and 3500, Section I, A. M. M., and were contributed, with a history of the case, by Surgeon Edwin Bentley, U. S. V.