Civil War Washington

One of eight cases observed at the FREEDMAN'S HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C., during 1865, 1866, and 1867.⃰ In none of them were the patients soldiers. Five are of interest as examples of tubercular ulceration of the intestines. Besides the specimens from these cases, several other examples of tubercular ulceration of the intestines are preserved at the Museum, which were obtained from autopsies of colored women who died at the same hospital during the period mentioned. . . . In all of them extensive tubercular deposits were found in the lungs and other organs. Most of the specimens are portions of the ileum with tubercular ulcers of the mucous membrane and miliary tubercles on the peritoneal surface opposite:

CASE 835.—Robert Franklin; mulatto; age 33; admitted February 3, 1866. Consumption. Nothing of special interest was developed in the progress of the case. Died, March 29th. Autopsy twenty hours after death: Height six feet; approximate weight 160 pounds; a stout muscular man; rigor mortis well marked; no emaciation; abrasions on the lower extremities. The brain weighed forty-eight ounces; its membranes were slightly congested; there were four drachms of fluid in each lateral ventricle; the choroid plexus was congested, the pineal gland enlarged and contained calcareous deposits; the substance of the brain was slightly softened; the cerebellum was also somewhat softened; in the posterior fossæ of the cranium there was half an ounce of fluid. The right lung was coated with croupous lymph, congested, and contained much crude tubercle and a few vomicæ; its lobes were firmly interadherent; it weighed twenty ounces; there were six ounces of fluid in the right pleural cavity; the left lung was slightly adherent to the diaphragm, its lobes interadherent; its lower lobe was hepatized, its upper lobe congested; the lung contained a small amount of tubercles; it weighed thirty-five ounces; the left pleural cavity contained four ounces of fluid. The pericardial sac contained five ounces of serum. The heart was large and covered with an excessive amount of adipose tissue; its valves were very dark and congested; the organ was very fatty and weighed thirteen ounces; the aorta atheromatous. The liver weighed seventy-six ounces; its upper surface was normal in color, its lower surface dark-green and contained a few miliary tubercles; the gall-bladder was empty. The spleen contained a small quantity of tubercles, was very firm, and weighed fourteen ounces. The pancreas was of a greenish color and very soft; it weighed five ounces. The kidneys were very fatty and weighed eight ounces each. The mucous membrane of the stomach was thickened. The duodenum and jejunum were normal. The ileum presented a number of large scooped-out tubercular ulcers; on the peritoneal surface opposite the ulcers were deposits of tubercle. The cæcum and vermiform appendix exhibited a few tubercular ulcers. In the ascending and transverse colon there were a few scooped-out ulcers with irregular edges, which penetrated to the peritoneal coat. The large intestine was eight feet long, the small intestine thirty-three feet. The abdominal parietes were of a dark-greenish color.—Hospital Steward Samuel S. Bond. [No. 774, Medical Section, Army Medical Museum, is from this case. The specimen is a portion of the ileum with several large ulcers; the villi around the edges of the ulcers are hypertrophied. There are tubercular deposits on the peritoneal surface corresponding with the ulcers.]

⃰ During this period two of the hospital stewards on duty in the Museum, D. S. Lamb and S. S. Bond, were frequently sent to the Freedman's Hospital for the purpose of making autopsies. A considerable number of specimens illustrative of the diseases of the freedmen were thus obtained.