Title: Bridge, Aaron

Source text: The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-65.), Part 2, Volume 1 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1879), 160.

Keywords:diarrhœa and dysenteryfatal cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, with accounts of the morbid appearances observedfrom Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.chronic diarrhœacalcareous concretions in both lungsbronchial tubes leading from consolidated lobules contained pus, others plugged with fibrinileum distended, with large solitary glands, dot of black pigment in centre of eachPeyer's patches large in lower third of ileum, some presented small ulcers but some Peyer's patches appeared healthysome solitary glands in ileum ulceratedsolitary glands of colon enlarged, presented central dots of pigmentautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e40996

TEI/XML: med.d1e40996.xml


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.