Title: Rockstadt, Frederick

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), 189-190.

Keywords:diarrhœa and dysenteryfatal cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, with accounts of the morbid appearances observedfrom the Second Division of the Alexandria Hospital, Virginiachronic diarrhœagreat omentum adherent to small intestineparietal surface of peritoneum had deposit of lymph, peritoneal cavity contained fluidperitoneum covering small intestine inflamedknuckles of intestine adherent to each other and to parietal peritoneummucous membrane of colon inflamed and ulcerated, ulcer near sigmoid flexure perforatedrectum perfectly disorganizedautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e41382

TEI/XML: med.d1e41382.xml


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 449.—Private Frederick Rockstadt, company G, 204th Pennsylvania volunteers; age 46; admitted from regimental hospital October 28, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, November 1st. Autopsy twenty-four hours after death: Rigor mortis great; body emaciated; slight suggillation posteriorly. Head, neck, and spinal column not examined. The pericardium contained about two drachms of fluid. The heart was normal in size and structure, its valves healthy; the right auricle contained a large firm clot; smaller clots of the same character were found in each of the other cavities; the large arteries and veins contained a small quantity of dark blood. There were extensive old pleuritic adhesions on both sides. The left lung was very much congested, and scarcely crepitated when squeezed; the right lung was in the stage of gray hepatization. The bronchial glands were normal. The great omentum was contracted, thickened, and adherent to the small intestine. The parietal surface of the peritoneum was covered with a deposit of lymph; the peritoneal cavity contained three ounces of fluid. The stomach was filled with a yellow fluid which had a fæcal odor. The peritoneum covering the small intestine was inflamed, and the knuckles of intestine were adherent to each other and to the parietal peritoneum by recent deposits of lymph. The mucous membrane of the small intestine was healthy; the colon inflamed and ulcerated; one of the ulcers near the sigmoid flexure had perforated; the rectum was perfectly disorganized, soft, thickened and dark colored. The rectum was perfectly disorganized, varying in size from a pea to a walnut; the gall-bladder contained about two ounces of bile. The pancreas was normal. The spleen softened. The kidneys and ureters normal; the bladder filled with urine.—Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas Bowen.