Civil War Washington

CASE 97.—Preceded by quotidian chills; date of onset undefined; diarrhœal affection severe; delirium; prostration; death.—Private Jacob Benson, Co. B, 1st Pa. Cav.; age 23; suffered with quotidian chills during August, 1861, and on September 7 was admitted. Diagnosis—typhoid fever. The patient was weak, dull and stupid; pulse 104, skin hot and dry, tongue dry, brown and heavily coated, bowels relaxed and painful. Whiskey and beef-essence were administered. Six thin stools were passed during the next twenty-four hours; the right iliac region was tender. Turpentine emulsion, Hoffmann's anodyne and morphine were prescribed. On the 9th delirium, epistaxis, rose-colored spots and three thin dark stools were noted, and on the 10th sordes, subsultus, difficulty in protruding the tongue and aggravation of the diarrhœa. Enemata of starch and laudanum were used, but the diarrhœa persisted, giving five or six stools daily until the end. A profuse eruption of rose-colored spots and sudamina appeared on the 14th. The stools were passed involuntarily on the 16th, and afterwards the abdomen was tympanitic and tender in the right iliac region. Carbonate of ammonia was prescribed on the 17th. Next day the stomach was irritable, the respiration labored, skin congested, eyes dull, half opened and with contracted pupils. On the 19th a few rose-colored spots appeared; the pulse was 120, soft and compressible, and the features shrunken. Death took place on the 20th.