Civil War Washington

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

CASE 502.—Private Charles W. Akley, 7th Maine battery; age 16; admitted July 4, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. This patient had been ill five weeks, and was so much debilitated as to be unable to walk. His appetite was poor, and he had much thirst; tongue whitish; pulse 90 to 100. He had ten or eleven stools daily, accompanied by griping pain in the abdomen, and tenesmus. Gave a dose of castor oil followed by chalk-mixture and laudanum. July 6th: Has seven stools daily, but no longer complains of abdominal pain. To have a nutritious diet and stimulants in small quantities. July 12th: Appetite poor. Prescribed a mixture containing aromatic sulphuric acid and laudanum. Died, July 17th, at 3 P. M. Autopsy eighteen hours after death: Body much emaciated. Many large ulcers were found in the ileum, cæcum, and colon. The other organs were healthy.—Surgeon E. Bentley, U. S. V. [Nos. 422 and 423, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, are from this case. No. 422 is a portion of the transverse colon, which presents a number of large irregular ulcers such as are observed in diphtheritic dysentery after the separation of the sloughs; the muscular coat is exposed at the bottom of the ulcers. No. 423 is a portion of the descending colon with similar ulcers, some of which, however, penetrate to the peritoneum, while from the edges of some the mucous membrane hangs in shreds.]