Civil War Washington

Case from the case-book and medical descriptive lists of the DOUGLAS HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., Assistant Surgeon William F. Norris in charge from October, 1864, to September, 1865:

CASE 325.—Private Wyatt Perkins, company I, 37th Wisconsin volunteers; admitted July 25, 1865, at about nine o'clock P. M. Chronic dysentery. [According to the register of the hospital of the 1st Division, 9th Army Corps, this man was admitted to that hospital July 18th—acute dysentery—and sent to general hospital July 25th.] The patient was moribund; pulse very weak and fluttering; delirium; hiccough. Died, July 26th, early in the morning, about six hours after admission. Autopsy eight hours after death: The stomach was distended and inflamed, especially near the pylorus. The pyloric orifice was contracted. The small intestine was nearly healthy. The large intestine was excessively thickened, and presented on the surface of its mucous membrane a number of irregularly oval sloughs from half an inch to an inch in their long diameter, which were arranged transversely to the gut; these sloughs seemed to occupy nearly the entire thickness of the intestine; the peritoneum alone remained intact. The transverse colon was firmly adherent to the liver. The gall-bladder contained two gall-stones the size of ordinary marbles.—Acting Assistant Surgeon Henry Gibbons, jr.​