Report of cases of hospital gangrene treated in Douglas Hospital, Washington, D.C / by William Thomson.

  • Thomson, William, Dr.
Date:
[1864?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of cases of hospital gangrene treated in Douglas Hospital, Washington, D.C / by William Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    % [Extracted from the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for April 1834.] REPORT CASES OF HOSPITAL GANGRENE TREATED IN DOUGLAS HOSPITAL, WASHINGTON, D.C. t By WILLIAM THOMSON, M. D., ASSISTANT SURGEON U. S. A. The following histories of cases of hospital gangrene treated in Doug- las Hospital, Washington, serve to illustrate several points of great inte- rest in the etiology, pathology, and treatment of a disease hitherto rare in our military hospitals, and most worthy of careful study. The victims of this disease were wounded at Fredericksburg, Ya., Dec. 13th, 1862. For several weeks previous to this battle, the army had been resting on the Rappahannock, and had been exposed to no great hardships. It had been amply supplied with good and varied food, and the men were free from any scorbutic or other cachectic taint. It is well known that the fullest preparations had been made by Surgeon Letterman for that engagement. The operations were performed promptly, and the wounded probably received better care than ever before in the history of the war. On the 26th of December, 1862, about two hundred wounded from the battle of Fredericksburg, were received into the Douglas Hospital. I cannot speak of their treatment, medical, surgical, or hygienic, as at that time I was not connected with the hospital. I am, however, aware that the building in which the gangrene appeared contained fifty badly wounded, and recent cases; that there was a deficiency of medical officers and dressers to insure the necessary cleanliness, and that the sanitary con- dition of the ward was far from perfect. This hospital consists of the three brick houses known as Minnesota Row; and two large wooden pavilions, each divided into two wards. The ward in which this disease originated is one hundred and forty- three feet in length, twenty-three feet in breadth, and sixteen feet in height (eighteen feet at the cone, and fourteen at the eaves of the roof), and con- tains beds for fifty patients, thus giving 1050 cubic feet of space for each bed. There are two rows of windows, the lower of which contains two,