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 450.—Private William C. Sweeney, company A, 73d New York volunteers; age 39; admitted from the depot hospital of the 2d Corps, City Point, Virginia, November 2, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, November 3d. Autopsy twenty hours after death: Rigor mortis moderate; body very much emaciated; slight suggillation posteriorly. Head, neck and spinal column not examined. There were firm and extensive old pleuritic adhesions on both sides. The posterior portion of the lower lobe of the left lung was in the stage of red hepatization; in the apex of the right lung was a deposit of tubercle. The bronchial glands were enlarged and somewhat softened. The pericardium contained two ounces of fluid. The heart was normal. The omentum was congested. The liver was normal; the gall-bladder contained an ounce and a half of bile. The spleen was very small, but otherwise normal. The pancreas normal. The mucous membrane of the small intestine was very much congested, while that of the colon and rectum was inflamed, thickened, and ulcerated through its whole extent. The kidneys and bladder were normal.—Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas Bowen.