Civil War Washington

CASE 166.—Private John F. Chapman, Co. I, 32d Me.; age 35; was admitted July 2, 1864, with some irritability of the bowels, soreness of abdomen, slight tympanites, fever, great thirst, a dry furred tongue and a pulse of 111. He became afflicted with a troublesome cough on the 5th, which continued for some days, but on the 11th he was reported as improving. Two days later the stomach became irritable and the skin showed a tendency to slough. On the 14th he refused food and medicine, and next day he died. Post-mortem examination three hours after death: The right lung weighed fourteen ounces, the left fourteen ounces and a half; both were healthy except that there were a few softened tubercles in the upper lobe of each. The heart weighed eight ounces; its right ventricle contained a small fibrinous clot. The stomach was healthy. Peyer's patches were extensively ulcerated; the solitary glands showed many ulcers; the ileo-cæcal valve was much congested; the ascending colon presented two ulcers—the upper one, about the size of a pea, was superficial, the lower, five-eighths of an inch in diameter, penetrated to the peritoneum. The liver weighed sixty-nine ounces and was slightly congested; the gall-bladder contained five or six ounces of thin bile; the spleen weighed thirteen ounces.—Act. Ass't Surg. James T. Logan, Lincoln Hospital, Washington, D. C.