Civil War Washington

CASE 198.—Private Alonzo Wilkinson, Co. A, 20th Me., was admitted Aug. 21, 1864, having about five or six alvine evacuations daily, with some pain in the right side and slight dyspnœa; pulse 120; tongue dry and covered with a brown fur. The patient continued with but little change in his symptoms other than a temporary abatement of the diarrhœa and aggravation of the lung trouble, together with increasing prostration, until delirium came on, and death occurred on the 27th. Post-mortem examination six hours after death: Body not emaciated; rigor mortis great. The right lung was generally congested and its middle lobe hepatized; the left lung was congested posteriorly. The pericardium contained two ounces of liquid; the right cavities of the heart were filled with a large partially washed clot. The liver was enlarged and pale; the gall-bladder distended with viscid bile; the spleen enlarged and soft. The stomach was inflated with gas, dilated and flabby, and its mucous membrane was reddened near the pylorus. In the lower half of the ileum the agminated glands were congested, enlarged and prominent, and those near the ileo-cæcal valve showed small ulcers; the mucous membrane around the glands was more or less congested according to its proximity or distance from the valve; the solitary follicles were enlarged and prominent. No ulcers were found in the large intestine, which, however, was congested throughout and dotted with black pigment, particularly in the descending colon, where an occasional large black spot appeared. [Specimens 398 and 399, Med. Sect., Army Medical Museum, were taken from this case.]—Act. Ass't Surg. O. P. Sweet, Carver Hospital, Washington, D. C.