Civil War Washington

CASE 168.—Private Lewis Weir, Co. A, 202d Pa.; age 18; admitted Nov. 2, 1864. Typhoid fever. Died on the 7th. Post-mortem examination forty hours after death: Rigor mortis well marked; suggillation posteriorly; no emaciation. On the upper surface of the cerebral hemispheres, anteriorly along the course of the large blood vessels, there was in several places a gelatinous subarachnoid deposit; the subarachnoid space contained one ounce and a half of serum. The right pleural cavity contained two ounces and the left four ounces of dark bloody serum; the posterior part of the right lung was engorged and small portions of its upper and middle lobes were hepatized; the left lung was congested posteriorly. The intestines were distended with air; Peyer's patches in the lower part of the ileum were ulcerated in several places; the solitary follicles of the cæcum and of the first six inches of the colon were ulcerated; the remainder of the large intestine was normal; the mesenteric glands adjacent to the ulcerated intestinal glands were enlarged and dark-colored. The spleen was enlarged and softened.—Act. Ass't Surg. Thomas Bowen, Second Division Hospital, Alexandria, Va.