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 345.—Private Alonzo Russell, company C, 7th Wisconsin volunteers; admitted February 19, 1863. Consumption. [This man appears on the register of the hospital of the 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, Windmill Point, Aquia Creek, Virginia, admitted January 18th—chronic diarrhœa—sent to general hospital February 18th.] On admission this patient was extremely exhausted. He was much emaciated, and complained of cough, and pain in both lungs and in the abdomen. The sputa were somewhat purulent, and mixed with blood. There was dulness​ on percussion below both clavicles, and mucous rales were heard on both sides of the chest. He had three or four loose evacuations daily; had but little appetite; the abdomen was tender on pressure. Stimulants and nourishing diet were directed. Died, February 25th.—Acting Assistant Surgeon E. E. Andrews. Autopsy sixteen hours after death: Height five feet eight inches; body emaciated, somewhat rigid; apparent age 23. The brain weighed forty-four ounces and a half; was light colored and soft. In two places, one on each side of the longitudinal sinus, the Pacchionian bodies had attained great size, producing absorption of the dura mater, internal table, and diploöe. The right lung weighed seventeen ounces and a quarter, the left twenty-one ounces and a half; both were congested hypostatically; there was a tubercular deposit the size of a filbert in the anterior edge of the upper lobe of the left lung; another the size of a pea in the apex of the right lung. The bronchial glands were dark and hard. The heart weighed six ounces; it was firm, red, and contained no clots; the usual amount of adipose tissue was present. The pericardium contained an ounce of serum. The liver weighed thirty-six ounces; scattered through its substance were a number of miliary tubercles; two drachms of light-colored watery bile were found in the gall-bladder. The spleen weighed three ounces and a quarter; it was of a dark-brown color, firm consistence, and filled with tubercles. The pancreas weighed two ounces and one-eighth; it was dark colored and very firm. The suprarenal capsules were large and tough. The right kidney weighed four ounces and a quarter, the left four ounces and a half; they were very much congested. The stomach was congested almost to ecchymosis; its mucous membrane soft, the congestion and softening extending into the duodenum. The upper part of the jejunum was slate-colored; other portions of the intestinal mucous membrane were congested. The solitary and agminated glands were normal.—Assistant Surgeon George M. McGill, U. S. A.