Title: McClure, David A.

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, Virginiachronic diarrhœadebilitymucous membrane of whole small intestine and colon thickenedautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e41564

TEI/XML: med.d1e41564.xml


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


CASE 497.—Corporal David A. McClure, company I, 149th Pennsylvania volunteers; age 27; admitted December 7, 1863. Chronic diarrhœa. [This man appears on the register of the hospital of the 3d Division, 1st Corps, admitted April 20th—debility—returned to duty May 3d; admitted September 11th—diarrhœa—returned to duty September 17th; admitted November 3d—diarrhœa—returned to duty December 2d.] The patient was very much emaciated and debilitated by protracted diarrhœa; the discharges were watery and not accompanied by much pain. Treatment: Alteratives, tonics, astringents, opiates; extra diet. Died, January 1, 1864. Autopsy five hours after death: Body greatly emaciated. The lungs were comparatively healthy. The mucous membrane of the whole small intestine was thickened. The colon was very little thickened.


⃰ 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.