Civil War Washington

Case from the case-book of the L'OUVERTURE HOSPITAL, Alexandria, Virginia, Surgeon Edwin Bentley, U. S. V., in charge. All the patients were colored men, most of them sent to Alexandria from the hospital for colored troops, City Point, Virginia.

CASE 557.—Recruit William Diller, (colored;) admitted from Lincoln hospital October 27, 1864. Gastrodynia. [This man appears on the register of the Augur hospital, near Alexandria, Virginia, admitted October 8th—remittent fever—sent to general hospital October 17th; and on the register of the Lincoln hospital, Washington, D. C., admitted October 18th—diarrhœa—sent to general hospital October 27th.] He complained of dyspeptic symptoms, especially of pain and swelling in the stomach; but his appetite was good, and he did not seem to be very sick. Occasionally he had slight attacks of diarrhœa, which were easily controlled by astringents, until about November 20th, when severe diarrhœa set in, which did not yield to treatment. There was some abdominal tenderness, but it was not thought that he was dangerously ill until a few hours before death. Died, December 15th. Autopsy: The ileum and large intestine were extensively ulcerated, and there were a number of perforations. [The record does not state whether in the small intestine or the large.] There was an extensive deposit of tubercle in the mesentery. The intestines were firmly adherent to each other and to the abdominal parietes.—Acting Assistant Surgeon Freeman Stoddard.