Civil War Washington

The notes were forwarded, with the specimens, to the Army Medical Museum from CARVER HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., Surgeon Oliver A. Judson, U. S. V., in charge:

CASE 428.—Private Marvin Kellogg, company G, 2d New York heavy artillery; age 33; admitted from the depot hospital of the 2d Corps, City Point, Virginia, August 21, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. The patient was greatly emaciated and had a jaundiced look. He had a severe diarrhœa, amounting to fifteen or twenty dejections during the twenty-four hours; his pulse was weak and easily compressed; his tongue was moist and thinly coated with gray fur. He continued in about this condition till August 25th, when the fæcal discharges became very frequent and involuntary. Treatment: Opiates and astringents, pills of opium and nux vomica, opiate enemata, &c.; brandy as a stimulant. Diet: Milk, chicken, beef-tea, beef-essence, &c. He died August 28th. Autopsy: Rigor mortis great; body greatly emaciated; there was a large collection of sordes on the teeth. The lungs were normal. The right side of the heart contained a fibrinous clot, the left side was filled with dark blood; the valves were healthy; the pericardium contained about two ounces of fluid. The liver was slightly enlarged and congested; the gall-bladder was filled with viscid bile. The spleen was dark colored, small and firm. The mucous membrane of the stomach was congested and red, presenting signs of severe inflammation about the cardiac orifice; the pyloric end of the organ was greatly contracted, the mucous membrane being thrown into large folds. The agminated glands in the lower portion of the ileum were congested, the congestion increasing, and dark spots appearing on the mucous membrane near the ileocæcal valve. The mucous membrane of the colon was congested, thickened and roughened with pseudomembrane; in the lower portion of the descending colon there were a number of small ulcers.—Acting Assistant Surgeon O. P. Sweet. [Nos. 401 and 402, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, are from this case. No. 401 is a portion of the ileum, No. 402 of the descending colon. The mucous membrane of both is coated with pseudomembrane; in the colon there are a number of small follicular ulcers.]