Civil War Washington

The notes were forwarded, with the specimens, to the Army Medical Museum from EMORY HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., Surgeon Nathaniel R. Moseley, U. S. V., in charge:

CASE 431.—Private John Ordikirk, company K, 8th New York heavy artillery; age 16; admitted from the depot hospital of the 2d Corps, City Point, Virginia, September 15, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. The patient was very weak and much emaciated. Ordered him to be kept at rest, and prescribed alteratives and astringents. There was some little improvement up to the 19th, when the stools became more frequent and the patient much weaker. Directed brandy and scalded milk; continued the astringents. Died, October 2d. Autopsy next day: The solitary follicles of the ileum were enlarged to the size of pin-heads, and some of them were ulcerated at their apices. In the large intestine there were numerous small follicular ulcers, between which the mucous surface was frosted with pseudomembrane. [There is no record of the condition of the other organs.]—Acting Assistant Surgeon W. H. Combs. [Nos. 395 to 397, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, are from this case. No. 395 is a portion of the ileum, with the ileocæcal valve and part of the cæcum. The solitary follicles in the ileum are enlarged to the size of pin-heads, some of them presenting a minute point of ulceration at the apex. The mucous membrane of the cæcum is thickened and sprinkled with points of pseudomembrane; it also presents a few small follicular ulcers. No. 396 is a portion of the cæcum with the vermiform appendix; there are a number of small follicular ulcers in the mucous membrane of the appendix, and of the cæcum near its orifice. No. 397 is a portion of the sigmoid flexure and rectum of the same patient, with numerous punched-out extremely small ulcers, between which the mucous surface is frosted with pseudomembrane.]