Civil War Washington

CASE 1826.—Private A. R. Davis, Co. F, 102d Pennsylvania, aged 28 years, was wounded at the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. Surgeon S. F. Chapin, 139th Pennsylvania, recorded his admission to the field hospital of the 2d division, Sixth Corps, with "a gunshot wound of left arm." The patient was sent to Washington, whence Surgeon G. L. Pancoast, U. S. V., in charge of Finley Hospital, performed excision of the elbow joint, and described the operation as follows: "The patient was admitted May 13th, with gunshot fracture of left elbow joint, the ball entering the anterior part, passing directly upward and backward. The joint was opened, the parts became much swollen, and anchylosis was taking place rapidly. June 17th, excision was performed, under chloroform, by an incision about five inches in length, a portion of the ends of the radius, ulna, and humerus being taken out. June 30th, patient has been doing very well. Water dressings were applied, and afterward emollient poultice. Death took place on August 22, 1864. The immediate cause of death was diarrhœa. The excised bones of the joint, represented in the annexed cut (FIG. 649), were contributed to the Museum by the operator, and embrace the head and one inch of the shaft of the radius, six fragments representing two inches of the extremity of the humerus, and the upper part of the ulna. The specimen has slight osteophytic deposits upon it, and the articular surfaces are more or less carious.