Civil War Washington

Case entered in the book is signed by Assistant Surgeon A. Hartsuff, U. S. A., temporarily acting as surgeon in charge,⃰ by whom it is understood the majority if not all the cases were treated. To the account of each case as recorded in the case-book the subsequent history of the patient, whenever it has been possible to obtain it, is appended. ⃰In the absence of Assistant Surgeon E. J. Marsh, U. S. A.

CASE 11.—Private David Watson, company D, 16th Massachusetts volunteers; admitted June 17, 1863. Diarrhœa of ten weeks' standing, with from six to eight discharges per day. Gave astringents, such as tannic acid, acetate of lead, &c., with opium, but effected no change in his condition. June 30th: Ordered the following: ℞. Nitrate of silver ten grains, laudanum twenty-five drops, water one ounce. To be used as an enema. The injection was retained an hour. June 21st: The patient seems much better, and has had but one passage from the bowels since the last note. The fæces are more consistent. July 1st: There has been but one stool per day since the injection. The diarrhœa may be considered cured. The patient is transferred to a northern hospital to recruit his strength. [The register of Lovell hospital, Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island, shows that this man was admitted to that hospital July 3d—diagnosis, diarrhœa—and that he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps March 31, 1864, on account of the loss of his left thumb by amputation.]