Civil War Washington

Case from the case-book of LINCOLN HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C.; Surgeon Henry Bryant, U. S. V., in charge to May, 1863.

CASE 337.—Private Alonzo D. Snow, company D, 137th New York volunteers; admitted from regimental hospital at Fairfax Station, Virginia, January 18, 1863. Chronic bronchitis. This patient was very much debilitated and had constant diarrhœa. Died, Februaiy 1st. Autopsy three hours after death: There was considerable postmortem rigidity, although the body was still warm. The brain weighed forty-six ounces and a half; there was a small quantity of pus in the lateral ventricles; the superficial veins were full of dark blood; the substance of the brain was of a dark color and soft. The right pleural sac contained about a pint of dirty yellowish liquid. The right lung weighed fifteen ounces and a quarter; its superior lobe was marked by a deposit of melanic matter following the course of the ribs; the middle lobe was congested anteriorly; scattered through the parenchyma of the lower lobe were a number of small irregular vomicæ containing a puruloid fluid; these cavities apparently did not connect with the bronchial tubes; in some cases bronchial tubes were found passing through them and surrounded by their contents without opening into them; the bronchial tubes contained a considerable quantity of frothy muco-pus; the left lung weighed twelve ounces and a quarter; there was some congestion in both lobes, and melanic matter in irregular patches at the apex. The pericardium was closely adherent to the surface of the heart. The tissue of the heart was firm and red; the right auricle was completely occupied by a dense black and white clot; in the right ventricle there was a pyramidal fibrinous clot, which extended into the pulmonary artery; the left ventricle also contained a small clot. The liver weighed fifty-eight ounces; it was of a uniform dark color externally, internally it approximated the nutmeg appearance; the gall-bladder was filled with very light watery bile. The spleen weighed six ounces and a half; it was somewhat softened and much congested; its color a very dark purple. The pancreas weighed two ounces and a half. The right kidney weighed four ounces and a half, the left kidney five ounces and a half. There was considerable softening of the mucous membrane through the whole alimentary tract, so that it tore with ease under the finger-nail. The ileum was congested at irregular intervals; the spots were at first of a light-orange color, which subsequently changed to a dark-brown. The large intestine was congested and its mucous membrane softened.—Assistant Surgeon George M. McGill, U. S. A.