Title: Dalien, Prosper

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), 575.

Keywords:wounds and injuries of the chestoperations on the chestexcisionsthoracentesisthoracentesis for effusion following perforation of chest by small projectileparacentesis thoracisball passed through pleuraair expelled from wound of the backair forced from thoracic cavity through wound in arm

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e20146

TEI/XML: med.d1e20146.xml


CASE 12.—Captain Prosper Dalien, Co. C, 208th Pennsylvania Volunteers, aged 26 years, was wounded at Petersburg, March 25th, 1865, by a conoidal ball, which entered beneath the inferior angle of the left scapula, passed through the pleura, and emerged at the anterior superior border of the left axillary space. He was treated in the field hospital of the Ninth Corps, until April 24th, when he was transferred to Armory Square Hospital, Washington. When admitted, there was considerable dyspnœa, with excessive pain, which was increased by coughing. At each forcible expiration the air was expelled from the wound of the back. Stimulants and anodynes were given. Whenever the patient moved he complained of a gurgling sensation. On percussion in the recumbent and upright position, it was decided that there was a large quantity of pus in the thoracic cavity. The cavity was opened by Assistant Surgeon Charles A. Leale, U. S. V., and twelve ounces of pure pus withdrawn, by means of a Flint's evacuator. Air was forced from the thoracic cavity through the wound in the arm. Morphine given to allay pain. On June 2d, hæmorrhage occurred from the cavity near the axillary space, and the patient died on the same day.