Title: Schaffer, Adam

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), 201.

Keywords:diarrhœa and dysenteryfatal cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, with accounts of the morbid appearances observedfrom the Third Division of the Alexandria Hospital, Virginiaserum in abdominal cavitythoracic cavity contained bloody serum, firm pleuritic adhesionschronic diarrhœaacute diarrhœamucous membrane of jejunum and ileum inflamed, solitary glands enlarged and ulceratedcæcum and rectum ulceratedhemorrhoidal veins enlargedautopsy performed

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e41682

TEI/XML: med.d1e41682.xml


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


CASE 527.—Private Adam Schaffer, company G, 84th Pennsylvania volunteers; age 46; admitted from City Point, Virginia, November 30, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. [This man appears on the register of the depot hospital of the 2d Corps, City Point, Virginia, admitted November 18th—acute diarrhœa—sent to general hospital November 29th, per steamer State of Maine.] Treated with astringents, tonics, anodynes and stimulants. Died, January 3, 1865. Autopsy eighteen hours after death: Moderate rigor mortis. The thoracic cavity contained a small quantity of bloody serum. There were firm pleuritic adhesions on the right side. The lower lobe of the right lung was hepatized. About eight ounces of serum were found in the abdominal cavity. The liver was brownish on section, and exuded a good deal of bloody serosity. The spleen was of medium size and purplish. The mucous membrane of the jejunum and ileum was inflamed and softened in patches; the solitary glands were enlarged and ulcerated. The cæcum and rectum were ulcerated in spots. The hemorrhoidal veins were enlarged.


⃰ 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.