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 461.—Private Oliver S. Barnum, company B, 26th Michigan volunteers; age 30; admitted from the depot hospital of the 2d Corps, City Point, Virginia, October 21, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. Died, December 13th. Autopsy twenty-six hours after death: Rigor mortis great; body emaciated; slight suggillation posteriorly. Head, neck and spinal column not examined. There were no pleuritic adhesions. The posterior portions of both lungs were hypostatically congested. The pericardium contained about an ounce of serum. The heart was normal, except that the foramen ovale was imperfectly closed, two small openings connecting the cavities of the auricles; these openings were protected by valve-like processes of the inter-auricular septum; the right auricle and the vena cava were filled with dark blood. The liver was full of blood, but otherwise normal; the gall-bladder contained about half an ounce of bile. The spleen was enlarged, but normal in color and consistence; the pancreas darkly congested. The mesenteric glands were very much enlarged and dark colored, especially those connected with the lower part of the ileum. The mucous membrane of the stomach, duodenum, and jejunum was normal. Many of Peyer's patches in the lower three feet of the ileum were thickened and ulcerated; the surfaces of the ulcers presented a worm-eaten appearance. Some of the solitary glands in the ileum near the ileo-cæcal valve, in the cæcum, and in the first six inches of the ascending colon, were ulcerated, and many others were enlarged but not ulcerated. The mucous membrane of the colon and rectum seemed a little softened, but was otherwise normal. The kidneys were very large, and their vessels were full of blood. The bladder was full of urine.—Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas Bowen.