Title: Down, William

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), 198.

Keywords:diarrhœa and dysenteryfatal cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, with accounts of the morbid appearances observedfrom the Third Division of the Alexandria Hospital, Virginiachronic diarrhœainflammation of lung and pleurapericardium firmly adherent to heartdisease of auriculo-ventricular valveslower ileum, cæcum, and colon ulcerated, thickening of mucous membraneautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e41609

TEI/XML: med.d1e41609.xml


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


CASE 509.—Private William Down, company F, 187th Pennsylvania volunteers; admitted August 1, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. [This man appears on the register of the Augur hospital, near Alexandria, Virginia, admitted July 28th—remittent fever—sent to general hospital August 1st.] Died, August 8th. Autopsy sixteen hours after death: Body greatly emaciated. There was extensive inflammation of the left lung and pleura. The pericardium was firmly adherent to the heart at every point, and there was some disease of the auriculo-ventricular valves. The lower portion of the ileum, the cæcum, and the colon were ulcerated, and there was much thickening of the mucous membrane.


⃰ 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.