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 528.—Private William Johnson, company C, 48th Pennsylvania volunteers; admitted October 21, 1864. Chronic diarrhœa. [This man appears on the register of the depot hospital of the 9th Corps, City Point, Virginia, admitted October 1st—debility—sent to general hospital October 20th, per hospital transport Ben Deford.] The patient was very feeble, and had copious frequent stools, the discharges being thin and clay-colored. Blue mass combined with opium was given for a time, followed by mineral and vegetable astringents combined with opium, and, as the patient became weaker, gentle tonics and stimulants. Opiate and astringent enemata were frequently given to relieve the pain and tenesmus. His appetite gradually failed; he grew steadily weaker, and died February 8, 1865. Autopsy eighteen hours after death: Slight suggillation posteriorly; rigor mortis moderate. There were pleuritic adhesions on the left side. Both lungs were congested, and a bloody serosity exuded on section. The bronchial glands were enlarged. The stomach was normal. The mucous membrane of the jejunum presented patches of ulceration. The ileum was ulcerated as far as the ileo-cæcal valve. In the colon there were patches of bluish ulceration and discolorations, supposed to be cicatrices. The spleen was small. The kidneys were small but 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.