Civil War Washington

CASE 26.—Cerebral and intestinal symptoms; rose-colored spots from the 11th to the 34th day; improvement on the 26h day, coincident with subsidence of febrile heat and appearance of moisture on surface.—Private Hugh Murphy, Co. I, 3d Vt.; age 22; had measles in July, 1861, and on Sept. 25 was taken with a heavy cold, chills, headache and diarrhœa. On admission, Oct. 3, his case was diagnosed one of typhoid fever. He slept well, but his eyes were suffused and he had some pain in the head, anorexia and slightly relaxed bowels; his tongue was moist and coated yellowish in the centre; skin natural; pulse 90 and full. Rose-colored spots appeared on the chest and abdomen on the 5th and were very profuse on the 7th, when the skin became hot and dry, the lips parched and the tongue red and glossy at the tip and edges and dry at the base and centre; five stools were passed on this day, and there was much tympanites but no tenderness. By the 10th the eyes had become injected, the cheeks flushed, the tongue dry and dark and the teeth covered with sordes; the patient was stupid and at times delirious; meteorism and borborygmus accompanied the diarrhœa. Up to this time emulsion of turpentine and Dover's powder had been used in the treatment; quinine was now given in two-grain doses every hour. The bowels were moved nine times on the 11th and the right iliac region was markedly tender. Tincture of iron was given on the 12th. Deafness was noticeable on the 13th. This condition of mental hebetude, deafness, occasional delirium. flushed face, hot and dry skin with eruption of rose-colored spots, dry and dark tongue and marked diarrhœa continued until the 20th, when the skin lost its heat, the tongue its dryness and the stools became less frequent; the patient was troubled with some cough during this period. The skin was reported moist for the first time on the 24th. The eruption did not disappear until the 28th. The tongue continued moist and but slightly coated, the skin natural, the appetite good and the bowels moved but once daily until Nov. 1, when the patient was transferred to Annapolis, Md. [whence he was returned to duty on Dec. 2].