Civil War Washington

CASE.—Private G. P. L——, Co. F, 4th New York Artillery, aged 28 years, was admitted into Douglas Hospital, Washington, April 5th, 1865, with a penetrating gunshot wound of the chest, received at South Side Railroad, Virginia, on April 2d. He stated that he spat blood upon the reception of injury. Pleurisy of the right side was well marked, with slight emphysema of the cellular tissue near the posterior wound, from which issued a thin sero-purulent fluid. The pulse and respiration were rapid; air entered and escaped freely from the posterior wound; the patient rapidly grew worse in spite of a generous diet and supporting treatment, and died on April 9th, 1865. Fifteen hours subsequently the entry of the ball was noticed on the back, a little to the right of the spinous process of the ninth dorsal vertebra, whence it had passed inward and upward, fracturing the transverse process, chipping the eighth rib, fracturing the fifth, and escaping from the axilla of the same side. The right pleural cavity contained thirty-four ounces of a dark, offensive, sero-purulent fluid. The parietal and visceral pleuræ were covered with a greenish, soft, cacoplastic lymph, and the right lung, perforated by the bullet through the lower lobe, was compressed and collapsed. There was a slight serous effusion in the left pleural cavity: the remaining thoracic and abdominal viscera appeared healthy. Two specimens accompanying this history were contributed to the Army Medical Museum by Assistant Surgeon W. F. Norris, U. S. A. The first, No. 2411 of the Surgical Section, consists of the seventh, eighth, and ninth dorsal vertebræ, with the fifth, seventh, and eighth ribs of the right side. The right transverse process of the eighth vertebra and the dorsal extremity of the corresponding rib are chipped by a bullet. The fifth rib is obliquely broken, and comminuted on its internal surface, with a transverse fracture externally. The second, a preparation of the lung, is shown in the adjoining cut. (See FIG. 234.)