Civil War Washington

CASE 75.—Successive crops of rose-colored spots from 10th to 36th day; perspirations; diarrhœal tendency slight; gastric irritability; convalescence on 38th day.—Private S. B. French, Co. B, 6th Wis.; age 25; is said to have had typhoid fever in 1859. On Sept. 21, 1861, he was taken with chills and fever, headache, pains in the back and limbs and diarrhœa, for which quinine was given. He was admitted October 1. Next day his face was somewhat congested, eyes bright, pulse 100, quick and strong, skin hot and moist, edges of the tongue dry and its centre covered with a brown crust, appetite small; three stools were passed, and there was some cough with viscid mucous expectoration. Turpentine emulsion and astringents were given. Rose-colored spots appeared on the 3d and continued to erupt at intervals until the 29th. The skin was generally moist; but on the 6th and 7th free perspiration occurred accompanied with sudamina; tinnitus aurium also was noted at this time, and the pulse fell to 75. The bowels were moved once or twice daily, and there was more or less tenderness, chiefly umbilical and left iliac. Five stools were passed on the 10th and again on the 15th, but the tendency to diarrhœa was not marked, for three grains of blue-pill repeated twice on the latter day, and six grains of compound cathartic pill repeated twice on each of the two following days, did not aggravate it; the bowels were generally moved twice, but sometimes only once daily to the end of the record. Profuse nocturnal perspiration occurred on the 15th and following days. The tongue on the 8th became red at the tip and edges and brown or yellowish-brown in the centre; on the 10th it became slightly dry in the middle; on the 17th red, moist, flabby and with prominent papillæ, and after this more or less coated to the end. The appetite continued good from the second day after admission, but on the 26th and 27th there was some irritability of stomach. Quinine was given at this period in three-grain doses every two hours. On the 29th the patient slept well; his eyes were bright; cheeks not flushed; pulse 78, regular; skin hot and moist, a few rose-spots appearing on the breast and abdomen; tongue red at the tip and edges, yellowish coated and fissured in the centre; appetite good; one stool was passed; the stomach continued irritable, and there was some cough with yellow expectoration. On the 31st he was sitting up; the gastric irritability and the cough had ceased. On November 1 he was transferred to Annapolis, Md. [whence he was discharged on account of atrophy of the leg, March 28, 1862].