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 451.—Private John F. McGauhey, company M, 21st Pennsylvania cavalry; age 18; admitted from the field October 12, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, November 8th. Autopsy thirty-eight hours after death: Rigor mortis very slight; body very much emaciated; slight suggillation posteriorly and on the abdomen. Head, neck and spinal column not examined. The left pleural cavity contained two, the right three, ounces of bloody serum. There were old pleuritic adhesions on the right side. There were deposits of tubercle in the upper lobes of both lungs; the lower lobes were in the stage of gray hepatization. The pericardium contained two drachms of serum. The heart was normal. The great omentum was very much congested. The liver was normal; the gall-bladder contained about three drachms of bile. The spleen and pancreas were normal. The kidneys were normal in size, but their cortical substance was very pale and had a fatty appearance. The stomach and duodenum were normal. Both the small and the large intestine were very red externally. The mucous membrane of the jejunum and ileum was congested, inflamed in patches, and there were several ulcers in the lower part of the ileum, which were not situated in Peyer's patches. The mucous membrane of the colon and rectum was thickened and inflamed.—Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas Bowen.