Title: Alexander, Robert

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), 197.

Keywords:diarrhœa and dysenteryfatal cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, with accounts of the morbid appearances observedfrom the Third Division of the Alexandria Hospital, Virginiatyphoid feverdiarrhœastupor, subsultus tendinumdescending colon thickened and softened, no ulcerationautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e41559

TEI/XML: med.d1e41559.xml


Case from the case-book of the THIRD DIVISION of the ALEXANDRIA HOSPITAL, Surgeon Edwin Bentley, U. S. V., in charge:⃰


CASE 496.—Private Robert Alexander, company E, 149th Pennsylvania volunteers; age 18; admitted December 6, 1863. Typhoid fever. When admitted, this man was suffering from diarrhœa; his stomach was irritable; his urine scanty and high colored; his tongue red and dry. Treatment: Alteratives, turpentine, supporting diet. December 18th: There is more or less stupor, subsultus tendinum, involuntary stools. Died, December 21st. Autopsy nine hours after death: The lungs were healthy. The mucous membrane of the stomach was softened. The descending colon was thickened and softened, but no ulceration could be found. The liver was normal.


⃰ It is to be regretted that, in most instances, the records of this hospital do not show by whom the autopsies were made. It is known that many of them were made by Surgeon Bentley himself, or under his immediate supervision, but it is only possible to distinguish these from the others in a few cases.