Civil War Washington

CASE 138.—Private Stephen Cornwright, 18th N. Y.; age 23; was admitted Nov. 30, 1864, with fever and feet gangrenous from frost-bite. He died December 20. Post-mortem examination two hours after death: Body much emaciated. The larynx, trachea, œsophagus and heart were normal. The right lung weighed twenty-two ounces and the left thirty ounces; the lower and middle lobes of the right lung and the lower lobe and lower portion of the upper lobe of the left lung were solidified and studded with small abscesses. The liver weighed seventy-one ounces and a half and the spleen seven ounces and a half; Peyer's patches were ulcerated; the kidneys appeared to be normal. [The attending physician remarks: "This man was admitted with both feet in a gangrenous condition. According to his own statement he had them frozen; but my opinion is that their condition was a result of his fever." This opinion is supported by the register of the hospital at Giesboro Point, Md., in which the patient appears as admitted November 23 with typhoid fever, and as sent to General hospital on the 29th. No reference is made to frostbite.]—Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.