Civil War Washington

Case from the case-book of the SECOND DIVISION of the ALEXANDRIA HOSPITAL, Virginia, Surgeon Edwin Bentley, U. S. V., in charge. Autopsy was made and recorded in the case-book by Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas Bowen:

CASE 447.—Private George Stewart, company F, 4th New York artillery; age 45; admitted from the field October 21, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. [This man appears upon the register of the depot hospital of the 2d Corps, City Point, Virginia, admitted October 6th—chronic diarrhœa—sent to general hospital October 20th.] Died, November 1st. Autopsy fifty-two hours after death: Rigor mortis very slight; body emaciated; slight suggillation posteriorly. Head, neck and spinal column not examined. The left pleural cavity contained about an ounce of fluid. The left lung was normal; the apex of the right lung was adherent posteriorly to the costal pleura; the lobes of the lung interadherent; the lower lobe hepatized posteriorly. The pericardium contained two drachms of fluid. The heart was normal. The spleen, pancreas and liver were normal; the gall-bladder contained about an ounce of bile. The left suprarenal capsule was enlarged and softened. The left kidney, dark externally, congested internally, had six small abscesses in its cortical substance. The right suprarenal capsule was softened. The right kidney was similar to the left, except that it had only two small abscesses in its substance; its pelvis was congested, and the corresponding ureter filled with a purulent fluid. The bladder was full of urine; its mucous coat seemed thickened. The mucous membrane of the stomach was dark colored; that of the small intestine congested in patches; that of the colon inflamed and very dark colored; that of the rectum very much thickened and extensively ulcerated.—Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas Bowen.