Civil War Washington

CASE 140.—Private Charles B. Beams, Co. B, 146th N. Y.; age 26; admitted Nov. 23, 1863; died 27th. Post-mortem examination twelve hours after death: Rigor mortis extremely marked; body moderately emaciated. The brain was unusually firm and weighed forty-nine ounces; its ventricles contained one drachm and a half of fluid. The larynx, trachea and œsophagus were natural. The right lung weighed eleven ounces and a half and the left twelve ounces; the lower lobes were engorged, softened, friable and charged with frothy bronchial secretion. The heart was healthy and contained a large fibrinous clot in its right cavities; the pericardial liquid was pale and measured fourteen drachms. The liver was healthy, weight sixty-eight ounces; the spleen firm, natural in size and of normal color. The small intestine was much distended with air; within five feet of the ileo-cæcal valve its mucous membrane was deeply congested, the solitary and agminated glands prominent, and the latter ulcerated in parts of their surface. The kidneys were congested.—Ass't Surg. H. Allen, U. S. A., Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.