Civil War Washington

Case from the case-book and medical descriptive lists of the DOUGLAS HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., Assistant Surgeon William Thomson, U. S. A., in charge from February, 1863, to September, 1864, and after September, 1865:

CASE 314.—Private Abner H. Mundie, company G, 31st Maine volunteers; admitted from the army of the Potomac September 9, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa and bronchitis. [The register of the depot hospital of the 9th Corps, City Point, Virginia, shows that this man was admitted to that hospital August 14th—debility—and sent to general hospital September 8th.] From the date of admission the patient was somewhat flighty, continually desiring to explain his disease. He was much emaciated and very weak. Vomiting occurred several times; it was sometimes brought on by a paroxysm of coughing. The abdomen was very flat, somewhat painful on pressure; the stools thin and frequent; the tongue moist; pulse very feeble and thready. Died, September 16th. Autopsy: The lungs were much shrunken and engorged hypostatically; the ramifications of the bronchi were filled with a frothy fluid. The heart was firmly contracted and healthy. The liver was small and very green both superficially and deeply; the gall-bladder was full of very green bile. The spleen and kidneys were softened. The stomach contained three or four ounces of a dark-greenish fluid; its mucous membrane was softened. The small intestine was normal. The large intestine was thickened, and presented numerous follicular ulcers and some patches of pseudomembrane.—Assistant Surgeon William Thomson, U. S. A. [Nos. 393 and 394, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, are from this case. No. 393 is a portion of the ascending, No. 394 of the transverse, colon; both present numerous follicular ulcers, one of several lines in diameter. The mucous membrane is thickened, and presents, in No. 394, a number of small patches of adherent pseudomembrane.]