Civil War Washington

CASE 107.—John S——, aged 45 years, weighing about 170 pounds, an epileptic, fell from a stable-loft during the night of October 24th, and his body was found lifeless on the pavement in the morning. There was a slight cut on the scalp, but no other external evidence of injury. At the autopsy, six hours after death, the brain and its membranes were found to be much congested; but there was no intracranial effusion of blood or serum. There were old pleuritic adhesions on the left side; but the lungs were normal. The heart was flabby, and contained no coagula. The liver was cicatrized; the stomach and intestines showed no abnormal alteration. The spleen was much enlarged, weighing twenty and one-half ounces avoirdupois, and was ruptured, radiating fissures extending completely through its substance. Profuse hæmorrhage into the peritoneal cavity had resulted from this laceration. The specimen, represented in the accompanying wood-cut (FIG. 8), and the memorandum of the case, were contributed to the Army Medical Museum by Dr. J. F. Hartigan. A thin microscopical section in the vicinity of the rupture exhibits increased vascularity and abnormal enlargement of the Malpighian corpuscles, and numerous small deposits of pigment cells.