Civil War Washington

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

CASE 412.—Private Dominick Swartz, company K, 2d New York heavy artillery; age 49; admitted from the army of the Potomac November 14, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. [This man appears on the register of the hospital of the 1st Division, 2d Corps, near Petersburg, Virginia, admitted October 29th—diarrhœa—sent to depot hospital November 5th. He appears on the register of the depot hospital of the 2d Corps, City Point, Virginia, admitted November 5th—diarrhœa—sent to general hospital November 12th.] Died, November 30th. Autopsy ten hours and a half after death: Rigor mortis well marked; body considerably emaciated. The brain was normal; weight fifty-five ounces; there was a larger amount of subarachnoidal fluid than normal, and the pia mater and arachnoid were semi-opaque. The larynx and trachea were normal. The upper lobe of the right lung was in the stage of gray hepatization, and was adherent to the thoracic parietes; the remaining lobes were normal; the right lung weighed twenty-two ounces; there were extensive pleuritic adhesions on the left side; the lower lobe of the left lung was very much congested, and some of its lobules were in the stage of red hepatization; the upper lobe was normal; the left lung weighed twenty-five ounces. The heart weighed nine ounces; the cavities of its right side were distended by a large mixed clot, which extended into the venæ cavæ and pulmonary arteries; the left side contained a small vermiform clot. The liver, spleen, and kidneys presented nothing abnormal; the liver weighed sixty-four ounces and a half; the spleen five and a half; the right kidney six and a half, the left six. The mucous membrane of the intestines was a little more vasular​ than usual, but presented no other evidence of disease.—Acting Assistant Surgeon H. M. Dean.