Civil War Washington

CASE 148.—Private William T. Barrett, Co. K, 39th Mass., was admitted Dec. 24, 1862, with typhoid fever. Bronchitis set in about a week before his death, which occurred Jan. 29, 1863. Post-mortem examination twelve hours after death: The brain was pale, firm and weighed forty-three ounces. There were pleuritic adhesions on both sides. The lungs were marked by black pigment in the course of the ribs. The left lung weighed nineteen ounces and a half; its lower lobe was much congested and friable and its bronchial tubes congested, especially in their finer ramifications. The right lung weighed twenty-five ounces and three-quarters; there was a mass of solidified tissue in the posterior part of its lower lobe, the centre of which was occupied by fluid and opened into an inflamed bronchial tube of the third magnitude; several condensed pulmonary lobules were found also in the upper part of the lung; the bronchial glands were mottled black and white and were quite firm. The heart was flabby and contained clots. The liver, seventy-four ounces, was firm and of a light brown color, its acini comparatively distinct; the spleen, eleven ounces and a half, was soft and presented inferiorly a cyst containing half a drachm of fluid; the left kidney, five ounces, was slightly flabby and full of blood; the right kidney, four ounces and a half, was normal. The mucous membrane of the stomach was softened and free from folds. There were patches of intense congestion in the small intestine; some of Peyer's patches were ulcerated in the centre, some were neither ulcerated nor thickened and others near the valve contained black pigment and were ulcerated through to the peritoneum. The large intestine was quite thin.—Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.