A report of surgical cases treated in the Army of the United States from 1865 to 1871 / War Department, Surgeon General's Office.
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report of surgical cases treated in the Army of the United States from 1865 to 1871 / War Department, Surgeon General's Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![lead-water and opium used. The anodj-iie liniment was also used at times, and these several remedies were alternately employed till the patient's death, but with only partial alleviation of the local pain. The bowels were irregular during the whole length of the disease, being sometimes confined, but much oftener very loose. In fact the diarrhoea became so violent that during the last two weeks the evacuations were repeated and involuntary. It was treated at first by small doses of chalk and Dover's powder, tincture of catechu, opium, and acetate of lead, and when it became excessive, tannic acid was given by mouth, injection, and suppository, while the patient at the same time was taking large quantities of tincture of iron and quinine. Another comi)lication of the disease was bronchitis and pain over the chest, which annoyed the patient for a long time, and were treated by cough mixture and the local application of mustard-plasters or linseed poultices. A few light chills and some increase in the rapidity of the pulse were noticed at times, caused probably by the formation of pus. The emaciation progressed steadily, although the patient's appetite continued good to the last, and beef-tea and milk-punch Avere freely administered from an early period. He became completely bed-ridden, and an indolent ulcer opened itself over the right knee, which resisted all means of treatment. Bed-sores threatened to form upon the sacrum, but were prevented by the early application of washes of alcohol and tannin. One week before death an abscess showed itself in the perinjeum, and having opened under the action of poultices, a large quantity of unhealthy-looking pus issued from it, and continued to flow for several days. Death occurred on October 2Gth, from exhaustion. During the last three days foecal evacuations had been almost incessant. The patient was conscious to the last. At an autojisy, five hours after death, the body was very rigid, exceedingly emaciated, and of a strangely dark hue. Nothing abnormal was found in the thoracic and abdominal organs except some hypostatic congestion in the lungs. On cutting down over the sj'mphysis pubis, a vast and diffuse abscess was opened, full of a sanious, unhealthy pus. The soft parts around the i^ubis and about the perinteum were all infiltrated with that fluid, which must have amounted at least to a pint. The adductor muscles and femoral vessels and nerves of the right thigh were destitute of connective tissue and bathed in pus, which had burrowed down to the lower third of the thigh. The right pubis was extensively carious, the bony particles being so disintegrated that, on making the attempt to divide the symphysis, the knife missed the joint and cut through the bone without difiSculty. The disease had not proceeded beyond the ijubis, the hip-joint, to all appearances, being healthy. The left os innominatum w^as also found in a healthy condition. [The pathological specimen, consisting of the right OS innominatum, showing caries of the pubic i)ortion, was forwarded to the Army Medical Museum, and is numbered 5583 of the Surgical Section.] DCCXXVIII.—Bejjort of tlie Bemoral of a Bunion. By William J.Wilson, Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A. Michael McCormick, a corporal of Co. C, 34th Infantry, was admitted to the hospital at Holly Springs, Mississippi, in March, 1868, with a large bunion on the outside of the first metatarso-phal- angeal articulation, with which he had been suffering for a long time ; the toe was drawn inward and across and beneath the toes. The tendon of the adductor pollicis and the inner head of the flexor brevis pollicis were divided subcutaueously, and the toe straightened on a splint. On March 31, 1868, the toe was much straighter and not drawn across the toes as before the operation. The bunion itself was not much reduced in size. The case is reported by the operator. Lightning-Steoke.—A report of two cases of recovery of soldiers struck simultane- ously by lightning, and also a report of a very interesting fatal case were received. DCOXXIX.—Beport of Ttco Cases of Lightning-Strol-e. By A. K. Smith, Surgeon, IT. S. A. Case 1.—Henrj^ Ward, a private of Co. D, 18th Infantiy, aged 27 years, was struck by lightning- July 12, 1870. He was admitted to hospital at McPherson Barracks, Atlanta, Georgia, on the following day. Stimulating liniments and electricity were applied. He was returned to duty July 31, 1870.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21970695_0291.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
