Civil War Washington

The chromo plate facing page 518 represents a thickened anæmic-looking portion of colon, on the surface of which there are a great number of small follicular ulcers. The following is a memorandum of the case from which the specimen was taken:

CASE 901.—Private Jacob Leonard, 27th New York battery, while doing duty with his regiment in the army of the Potomac, was attacked with chronic diarrhœa, which was treated with variable success for several months. He finally broke down, and was admitted, August 28, 1864, to the field hospital of the first division, 9th army corps, where the diagnosis recorded was "dropsy," which had by this time become a prominent feature of the case, for, when the patient was transferred, August 31st, to the depot hospital of the 9th corps, City Point, Virginia, the diagnosis there entered on the register was "ascites and anasarca." September 8th, Leonard was sent north, and next day was admitted to Douglas hospital, Washington, D. C., where the diagnosis recorded was "scorbutic diarrhœa." He died September 16th. No further details of the case, or of the appearances observed during the autopsy, have been recorded.

The plate is a reproduction of a water-color drawing made at the Museum by Mr. H. Faber immediately after the autopsy. The mucous surface of the colon is of a pale cream color, with pale-bluish and reddish patches. The ulcers are numerous, and vary in size from mere points to the tenth of an inch in diameter. Nearly the whole of the colon was brought to the Museum, and the piece fairly represents the condition of all parts of it.