Title: Newton, Harman

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), 179-180.

Keywords:diarrhœa and dysenteryfatal cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, with accounts of the morbid appearances observedfrom Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.rheumatism and phthisisrheumatic pains in lower extremitiessevere cough with free expectorationdiarrhœanight-sweats and hectic feveratrophied heartcæcum and lower ileum much congested, oval ulcer at sigmoid flexure of colon, small ulcers in lower rectumautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e41223

TEI/XML: med.d1e41223.xml


Case from the case-book of LINCOLN HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C.; Surgeon J. Cooper McKee, U. S. A., in charge.


CASE 406.—Private Harman Newton, 10th Massachusetts battery; age 35; admitted from the depot hospital of the 2d Corps July 30, 1864. Rheumatism and phthisis. The patient when received into the hospital was exceedingly debilitated; he was suffering with rheumatic pains in his lower extremities, and had also a severe cough, with free expectoration and diarrhœa. August 25th: Nausea and vomiting set in, followed by night-sweats and hectic fever. Died, September 18th, of phthisis.—Acting Assistant Surgeon G. C. Clarke. Autopsy five hours and a quarter after death: Height five feet nine inches; body very much emaciated, and covered with fine purpuric spots; no rigor mortis. The brain was normal, and weighed forty-six ounces and a half. There were firm pleuritic adhesions on the left side. The lower lobe of the right lung was considerably congested, and on section a purulent fluid exuded from many of the small bronchial tubes; the middle and upper lobes were normal; there were several carnified spots about three-quarters of an inch in diameter in the lower lobe of the left lung, and on section a large quantity of frothy sanguineous fluid exuded; the upper lobe appeared to be normal; the right lung weighed twenty ounces, the left thirteen and a half. The heart was very small, weighing but five ounces and a half. The spleen weighed four ounces and a half. The liver was very much congested, and weighed forty-six ounces and a half. Both kidneys were congested; the right weighed four ounces and a half, the left five and a half. The œsophagus was normal. The cæcum and about three feet of the lower portion of the ileum were very much congested. At the sigmoid flexure of the colon there was an oval ulcer measuring two inches and three-quarters by two inches, its longest diameter being across the intestinal canal; its margin was very jagged and abrupt. There were several small ulcers in the lower portion of the rectum.—Acting Assistant Surgeon H. M. Dean. [No. 403, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, is from this case; the specimen is the atrophied heart.]