Civil War Washington

CASE 42.—Private Martin V. Murphy, Co, F, 123d Ohio, was admitted May 4, 1864, from hospital, Alexandria, Va. He had no hereditary tendency to disease and enjoyed excellent health up to fourteen months ago, when he was seized with a cold while on a scout at Winchester, Va., which in a few days was followed by fever. This confined him to bed for six or seven weeks, after which he partially recovered and went home on furlough, where he had a relapse which disabled him for four or five weeks. He so far recovered from this as to be able to walk several miles and continued to improve for two months, when he was taken with dysentery, which lasted two or three weeks, and since that time he has not fully regained his strength. He returned to his regiment and remained with it for about four weeks while it was in camp at Brandy Station, Va., but during that time he was unfit for duty. When the army moved he was sent to hospital at Alexandria, where he remained a month, after which he was transferred, as above stated. When admitted he was suffering from debility consequent on typhoid fever and dysentery. He was put on tonics and astringents, with the best diet the hospital afforded. He improved gradually until the 14th, when he complained of a sharp pain in the lower part of the right breast, aggravated by deep inspiration and coughing; pulse 120 and small; tongue moist and red; cough with white frothy expectoration; decubitus on left side; skin very hot. This pleuritic attack lasted until the 25th, after which convalescence progressed satisfactorily until July 11, when he complained of diarrhœa with some tenesmus, which steadily increased, resisting all efforts for its relief. He died July 25th. Post-mortem examination sixteen hours after death: Body much emaciated. A large amount of serum was found beneath the dura mater, between the layers of the arachnoid and in the ventricles: the substance of the brain was soft. The right pleural cavity was filled with purulent serum and the pulmouary and costal pleura were completely lined with a fibro-albuminous deposit; the lung was consolidated by pressure and bound to the posterior wall of the chest; both lungs were tuberculous; one tubercular ulcer in the right lung had perforated the pulmonary pleura. Tubercles were diffused over the surface of the heart and pericardium. The liver was healthy; spleen small and hard; kidneys small in size but healthy in appearance. Ulcers, with their long diameters at right angles to the length of the gut, were found throughout the small intestine.—Act. Ass't Surg. Charles P. Tutt, Satterlee Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.