Civil War Washington

CASE 90.—Private J. T. Pierce, Co. G, 33d Mass., was admitted June 16, 1863, with typho-malarial fever. He had frequently suffered from intermittent fever. When admitted he had been sick for some time and was greatly emaciated; he had some diarrhœa; his tongue was coated in the middle, dry and cracked; pulse 132. After this his breathing became hurried, and coarse mucous râles were heard over both lungs; there was also marked nervous prostration. He died on the 21st. Post-mortem examination twenty-six hours after death: Body emaciated; rigor mortis slight. The brain was normal. The mucous membrane of the œsophagus was of a pale purple color. The trachea contained much bronchial secretion; its mucous membrane was purplish. The upper and middle lobes of the right lung were solidified except their anterior free borders, which were pale and healthy; the lower lobe was congested hypostatically but not solidified. The posterior portion of the left lung was in a state of gray hepatization, the anterior part healthy. The right lung weighed twenty-seven ounces and a quarter, the left thirty-seven ounces; the bronchial glands were large, one of them softened. The pericardium was lined by recent lymph roughened by papillary elevations; it contained six drachms of flaky serum. The right cavities of the heart contained a large venous clot, the left cavities a mixed clot which extended into the aorta. The liver weighed fifty-seven ounces, it was pale and slightly softened; the gall-bladder contained a drachm of greenish-brown viscid bile. The spleen was firm and weighed three ounces and three-quarters. The pancreas was firm and white, it weighed two ounces and a half. The right kidney weighed five ounces and a quarter, the left five and a half, both were pale and flabby. No prominent lesion was observed in the intestines; the lower part of the jejunum was contracted and its mucous membrane pale; Peyer's patches were rather pale and dotted with points of black pigment; the large intestine was contracted and its mucous membrane of a pale bluish color.—Ass't Surg. Harrison Allen, U. S. A., Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.