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 343.—Private Henry Shomberg, company B, 54th New York volunteers; admitted February 19, 1863. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, February 22d, at P. M. Autopsy thirteen hours after death: Height five feet five inches; apparent age 28 years; body emaciated; some rigor mortis. A cleft palate was observed, and the cicatrix of an operation for hare-lip. There was a curvature of the spine to the left. The brain weighed fifty ounces; was light colored and of firm consistence. The right lung weighed thirteen ounces and three-quarters, the left eleven ounces; both lungs contained a large quantity of melanic matter, arranged externally in bands corresponding to the course of the ribs, internally following the blood-vessels; in the lower lobe of the left lung there was a calcareous mass the size of a pea; both lungs were congested. The heart weighed nine ounces and a half; there was much adipose tissue on its surface; two of the aortic valves were thickened and their free borders nodulated; on one of them was a firm red outgrowth the size of an apple-seed; on the anterior flap of the mitral valve there was an atheromatous patch; there were small white fibrinous clots in both ventricles; the pericardium contained a moderate quantity of fluid. The liver weighed sixty-two ounces and a half; it was pinkish-yellow, with indistinct acini, its capsule firmly adherent; the gall-bladder contained half an ounce of thin reddish-green bile; there were strong adhesions between it and the transverse colon. The spleen was light-brown and weighed nine ounces. The pancreas was pink, firm, and weighed three ounces and a quarter. The right kidney weighed eight ounces and a quarter, the left seven ounces and a half; each kidney contained a small cyst; the cortical substance of both was pale, the pyramids purplish-red. The stomach was irregularly congested, especially in its fundus; it was somewhat enlarged and its mucous membrane softened. The small intestine was somewhat dilated and very thin, its mucous membrane quite soft. The solitary glands of the ileum were enlarged, conical, and white at their apices; several small dark-bordered ulcers, unconnected with Peyer's patches, were observed. The mucous membrane of the colon and rectum was congested; in the sigmoid flexure it was softened.—Assistant Surgeon George M. McGill, U. S. A.