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 315.—Private Philip Becker, 27th New York battery; admitted from the army of the Potomac September 9, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. [This man appears on the register of the depot hospital of the 9th Corps, City Point, Virginia, as admitted August 31st—chronic diarrhœa; no disposition recorded.] He stated that he had been sick a long time; did not know exactly how long, but thought it was more than two months. He had lost a great deal of flesh, and was hardly more than skin and bones; had twenty to thirty passages in the twenty-four hours, consisting of yellowish, thin, flocculent matter; his pulse was feeble and about 100. Ordered a pill containing half a grain of nitrate of silver, three times daily, and laudanum enemata. After the first three days he began to improve, and the stools were reduced in number to three or four daily. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly, September 17th. Autopsy eighteen hours after death: The colon and rectum were extensively ulcerated, the mucous membrane hanging in fringes; the ulcers in some places had so nearly penetrated all the coats that they tore in removing the gut, although the greatest care was used. The small intestine was not much diseased. The lower Peyer's patches presented the appearance of the shaved-chin, and the neighboring solitary glands were slightly prominent. The other organs were all examined, but nothing abnormal was observed.—Acting Assistant Surgeon David L. Haight. [Nos. 364 to 366, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, are from this case. No. 364 is from the ascending, No. 365 from the transverse, and No. 366 from the descending, colon, just above the rectum. All the specimens present extensive ulcers, which are fewest in No. 364 and most numerous and extensive in No. 366. The ulcers penetrate to the muscular coat, and appear to have extended by burrowing in the submucous connective tissue; as a consequence, the mucous membrane hangs out in more or less extensive fringes, which are especially remarkable in No. 366.]