Civil War Washington

CASE 155.—Sergeant James Geddis, Co. L, 6th Mich. Cav.; age 33; admitted Aug. 18, 1863. Died 22d. Post-mortem examination nineteen hours after death: The brain was firm and healthy. The trachea was of a dark-purple color, tinged with ochre on the rings; the bronchial tubes contained a dark grumous secretion. The œsophagus was yellowish throughout. The lungs were somewhat œdematous, the right weighing twenty ounces and the left twenty-one ounces. The heart was pushed upwards by the intestines; the right ventricle contained a fibrinous clot which extended some distance into the pulmonary artery; the left cavities contained a soft venous clot; the aorta was highly colored. The liver and stomach were concealed by the intestines; the liver was firm; the gall-bladder contained twelve drachms of dark-colored bile with a yellow flocculent deposit; the spleen was compact and of a dark-purple color; the pancreas was dark-green externally, hard and white internally. The intestines were much distended, evidently from cadaveric changes; the lower third of the small intestine was ulcerated in several places, in one of which there was a circular perforation with pale white edges, and the peritoneum surrounding it blackened to the extent of the Peyer's patch affected and covered with tough yellowish lymph for some distance beyond; the large intestine was healthy except that its solitary glands were conspicuous. The kidneys were dark-purple in color.—Ass't Surg. H. Allen, U. S. A., Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.