Civil War Washington

CASE 377.—Private Jason O. French, Co. C, 17th Vermont, was wounded at the battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, and was taken to the Ninth Corps Hospital, where Surgeon J. Harris, 7th Rhode Island, recorded the injury as a shot wound of the thorax. Thence transferred to Washington, French entered Emory Hospital on the 7th, whence Surgeon N. R. Moseley, U. S. V., reports the following particulars:¹ "A minié ball entered the right side, at the lower margin of the eighth rib, near the angle, and emerged half an inch to the right of the spinous process of the first lumbar vertebra. The countenance was pale, the lips livid, the extremities cold; the pulse 110. There was dyspnœa, nausea, and occasional vomiting. The patient was much depressed from loss of blood, which had continued to flow at intervals during the three days succeeding the injury. Brandy and beef-tea were administered, and warm frictions to the extremities were employed, until reaction took place. On June 8th, the pulse was at 100. On this, and on several subsequent days, the bowels were irregular, the stools being sometimes yellow or dark brown, and sometimes clay-colored. On the 9th, the abdomen was tympanitic and tender, the tongue dry, the pulse 110. Acting Assistant Surgeon P. O. Williams directed a saline cathartic with terebinthinate enemata, and warm fomentations, and wine whey, beef-tea, and chicken-broth. On the morning of June 10th, there were two copious alvine discharges. There was still much abdominal tension and tenderness, and there was a jaundical​ discoloration of the surface. The urine also indicated a bilious discoloration. The pulse was 108, the extremities cold, the countenance cadaveric. Oil of turpentine and Dover's powder were given internally, and hot fomentations and terebinthinate embrocations were applied to the abdomen. On June 11th, the abdominal tenderness was mitigated, the pulse was 100, the tongue and skin moist, the extremities warm. The patient complained of general itching. The treatment was continued, a portion of ipecac being added to the Dover's powders. From June 12th to the 15th, there was gradual improvement. The bowels were regular, the stools clay-colored, the appetite good. A generous milk diet, with Dover's powder and ipecac at bedtime, was directed. On, June 20th, there was a profuse discharge of bilious matter from the anterior wound; from the posterior orifice pus, with occasional clots of blood, escaped. On June 25th, large quantities of greenish bile flowed from both wounds. It was inferred that a slough had separated and exposed the right hepatic duct, so copious was the discharge. The general condition was excellent, the patient resting without anodynes. In place of the Dover's powder, tincture of the sesquichloride of iron was ordered. After July 2nd, the bilious discharge subsided and the stools regained their natural color. Henceforward the patient's convalescence was uninterrupted. On August 19th, he was transferred to the Smith Hospital, Brattleboro', and was discharged from service July 18, 1865, and pensioned." Examiner D. W. Putnam, of Morrisville, Vermont, reports, January 5, 1872, that the pensioner suffers from dyspnœa, and that he is permanently disabled.

¹ An abstract of this case has been printed by Dr. PETER O. WILLIAMS, of Coxsackie, in the Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New York, 1866, Article VII, p. 39.