Title: Benedict, Charles

Source text: The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-65.), Part 2, Volume 1 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1879), 148.

Keywords:diarrhœa and dysenteryfatal cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, with accounts of the morbid appearances observedfrom the Harewood Hospital, Washington, D. C.debility from fever and chronic diarrhœacountenance hippocraticliver fattyjejunum lead-colored, portions injectedsolitary follicles in ileum enlarged to size of small shotascending colon injected, showed cicatrices of former ulcersrectum with points of ulceration extending upward to sigmoid flexureautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e40852

TEI/XML: med.d1e40852.xml


Case from the case-book and medical descriptive lists of the HAREWOOD HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., Surgeon Thomas Antisell, U. S. V., in charge from October, 1862, to September, 1863:


CASE 293.—Private Charles Benedict, company C, 17th Connecticut volunteers; admitted April 21, 1863. Debility from fever and chronic diarrhœa. Treatment at first opium and tannin, then Dover's powder, afterward quinine and iron. May 26th: Was furloughed. May 29th: Returned from furlough laboring under a relapse. He had twenty thin, yellowish, bloody stools during the day. Treatment: Decoction of flaxseed with opium internally, enemata of starch and opium, nutritious diet, sinapisms to the abdomen. On the 30th there were six stools, and hiccough set in; pulse 160; countenance hippocratic; vomiting; profuse cold sweat. Treatment: Lime-water, pills of opium and camphor, sinapisms to the abdomen and neck. Died, May 31st, at 5 P.M. Autopsy: The body was not much emaciated. There were pleuritic adhesions on both sides; firm on the right side, slight on the left. The lungs were pale, but apparently healthy. The heart was rather small, pale, and coated with fat; there was a large, fibrinous, yellow clot in the right ventricle. The liver was mottled and fatty; the gall-bladder distended with greenish bile. The spleen was congested and softened. The stomach and duodenum were injected in patches. The jejunum was lead-colored, portions of it much injected. The ileum was much congested; its solitary follicles were enlarged to the size of a small shot. The ascending colon was much injected, and showed the cicatrices of former ulcers; the transverse colon was pale; the follicles were enlarged slightly, with minute depressions on their summits; the rectum was pale, and dotted with points of ulceration extending as far upward as the sigmoid flexure.—Acting Assistant Surgeon H. Hirshfield.