Civil War Washington

CASE 860.—Private A. B. McCool, Co. E, 188th Pennsylvania, aged 21 years, was wounded in both lower extremities, at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. Surgeon S. A. Richardson, 13th New Hampshire, recorded his entrance into the Eighteenth Corps field hospital. Secondary resection was subsequently performed at Harewood Hospital, Washington, by Surgeon R. B. Bontecou, U. S. V., who reported that "the patient was admitted June 15th, suffering from gunshot wound of the right thigh and of the left leg at the ankle joint, fracturing the external and internal malleolus. At the time of admission the condition of the injured parts was not good, being œdematous and somewhat infiltrated with pus. Subsequently the parts sloughed extensively and the bone became necrosed, the patient's strength failing day by day. On July 12th sulphuric ether was administered and the ankle joint was resected, one inch each of the lower end of the tibia and fibula being removed. A severe and prostrating diarrhœa complicated the case, from the consequent exhaustion of which, together with the excessive suppuration, the patient died July 21, 1864. The treatment consisted of stimulants, sedatives, narcotics, and supporting diet." The excised portions of the tibia and fibula were contributed to the Museum by the operator and constitute specimen 3045 of the Surgical Section.²

² CULBERTSON (H.), Excision of the Larger Joints of the Extremities, in Trans. Am. Med. Association, 1876, Supplement to Vol. XXVII, p. 312.