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 342.—Private Aaron Bridge, company F, 13th New Hampshire volunteers; admitted February 8, 1863. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, February 14th. The patient was comatose for several days before his death; just before he died, however, the coma disappeared, and he was able to converse quite rationally. Autopsy thirty-three hours after death: Height five feet six inches; body emaciated; rigor mortis slight; apparent age 55 years. The brain weighed fifty-two ounces and a half; it was firm and of a pinkish color. The right lung weighed fourteen ounces and a half, the left eighteen ounces; there were some calcareous concretions in both lungs; some of the lobules of the upper lobe of the left lung were in a state of gray hepatization; its lower lobe was congested; some of the bronchial tubes leading from the consolidated lobules contained pus, others were plugged with fibrin. The heart weighed nine ounces and a quarter; there were fibrinous clots on both sides, which, together, weighed an ounce and a quarter; the pericardium contained some reddish-brown serum. The liver was firm, its acini distinct; it weighed fifty-three ounces and a half; the gall-bladder contained about three ounces of thin dark-green bile. The spleen weighed six ounces and a quarter; it was of dark color and natural consistence; its trabeculæ were distinct. The pancreas weighed two ounces and a half; it was soft and yellowish. The right kidney weighed five ounces and a half, the left five ounces; both were light colored, firm, and lobulated; the bladder was full of urine. The stomach was distended, its mucous membrane congested. The duodenal glands were somewhat enlarged. The ileum was distended; in the upper third its mucous membrane was intensely congested; its solitary glands were large, and a dot of black pigment appeared in the centre of each; Peyer's patches were large in the lower third of the ileum; they were not generally diseased, but some of them presented small ulcers, which in no case, however, involved the whole patch; moreover, some of the Peyer's patches appeared healthy; some of the solitary follicles were ulcerated. The solitary glands of the colon were enlarged, and presented central dots of pigment; the descending colon was slightly congested.—Assistant Surgeon George M. McGill, U. S. A.