weeks had passed and nothing had been done after the removal of the ball. I took off his shirt, which was made of a cloth called linsey, and it stood erect on the floor, hardened by the dried blood on it, and actually was rolled across the room like a barrel. Having no extra clothing, I took off my own shirt that I had worn two weeks or more without washing and put on him, while I washed and dried his. From this on he slowly improved, yet it was months before the wounds closed, and he was much disabled for years, though he stayed in the army and filled the place of hospital steward until the surrender of the army, at Mobile. After the war, in which we both lost all we had, I could help him to a medical education easier than anything else. So he graduated at the Missouri Medical College and has practiced medicine ever since. In March, 1882, twenty years after the wound, an abscess formed in the right lung. They telegraphed me that he was dying. I hastened to him, and on reaching him, he was almost as black in the face as before and seemed fast passing away, spitting up an enormous amount of foetid pus. He said: "stick a knife in there and I will live." I said: brother, the doctors all think you are dying, and I would be censured for doing so bold a thing. He said: "put it in, and I will live to vindicate the act." I passed a knife in between the two ribs indicated, to the depth of about three inches, and a large amount of pus escaped. He breathed through the incision, as he did when first shot. He gradually improved and in four months went to practicing again. In 1891, the abscess had formed again, and I was telegraphed for to see him die, and found him in the same condition as before. This time I found Dr. Miller, then president of the Missouri State Medical Society, with him, who refused to operate, and said: "no man was bold enough to do such a thing, and that it would be murder." I said: then you would force a man to murder his own brother? He said: "no, let him die." My brother replied: "hurry up and put that knife in!" I put it in as before and a very large amount of pus escaped and he breathed through the wound as before. This time it discharged about four months, and he got up and again went back to practice. He is now sixty years old and in active practice at Callao, Mo. REMARKABLE CASE OF GUN-SHOT WOUND AND RECOVERY. BY DEERING J. ROBERTS, M.D., Formerly Surgeon Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, C. S. A. Walter Evans at the age of 24, while a private in the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, at the battle of Chicamauga, September, 1863, received a wound from a conical minnie or Enfield rifle ball, entering in the median line, just above the symphysis pubis, cutting away a small portion of the bone and articular cartilage. The ball passed through the upper part of the bladder (as evidenced by urine escaping from the aperture of entrance), and through the rectum, escaping posteriorly through the sacrum a little to the left of the spinous process and through the middle third of the bone. Urine escaped also through rectum. Fecal matter coming through the wound of exit. Some hæmorrhage from bladder and rectum. Recovery complete in about seven months. The above brief memorandum was made and placed in in a copy of Erichsen's Surgery, (Blanchard & Lea, Publishers, 1854) which formed part of the contents of my medicine chest in 1863, and which I was able to preserve and now value highly as a relic of bye-gone days. It was written about seven months after the battle on receipt of a letter from Evans, stating that he had recovered and had been assigned to post-duty. The subject of this wound is yet living, and one year ago was elected President of the Twentieth Tennessee Association, and I had the pleasure of taking dinner with him on the 21st of September, 1900, on the occasion of the annual regimental re-union over which he presided. He has enjoyed reasonable fine health during the thirtyseven years that have elapsed, has been twice married and is the father of five children, and is a reasonably pros. perous farmer of Bedford County, Tenn. Several times the anterior wound has given him a little trouble, small spiculæ of bone coming out. In the early summer an abscess formed just over the pubis after a lengthy railroad trip, and after it opened urine escaped through the opening. There is still a little leakage there if he permits the bladder to become very full, but otherwise he is in good health at this time. This I have always regarded as a most remarkable instance of recovery from a very serious wound. He was only under my care for three days succeeding the reception of the wound which occurred on Sunday, September 21st. For two weeks later he was treated on the field by Drs. Gardner and McDowell, surgeons of the Thirtyseventh Georgia Regiment, and Caswell's Battalion of Sharpshooters, and then removed to stationary hospital below Atlanta. While the peritoneum may possibly have escaped injury, yet the viscera injured in its immediate vicinity by so terrible a missile, and in the days when asepsis and antisepsis were unknown, the result is somewhat remarkable. My treatment was simply cold water dressing, which was continued throughout the course of the case as I have been informed by him. A careful inspection of the cicatrices when I last met him, shows that the notes made over a third of century ago, were correct as to site of entrance and exit. NASHVILLE, TENN., October, 1900. GENERAL ORDER No. 249. NEW ORLEANS, LA., December 22. "Headquarters United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans, La., December 22, 1900: "1. The General commanding announces, the Department Commanders concurring, that on account of the urgent request and assistance of 'our host,' the next annual meeting and reunion of the United Confederate Veterans, which is to be held in the city of Memphis, Tenn., will take place on May 28, 29 and 30, 1901, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively. "2. With pride the General commanding also announces that 1,300 camps have now joined the association and applications have been received at these headquarters for papers for 100 more. He urges veterans everywhere to send to these headquarters for organization papers, form camps and join this association, so as to assist in carrying out its benevolent, praiseworthy and patriotic object. By order of "J. B. GORDON, General Commanding. "GEO. MOORMAN, Adjutant Gen. and Chief of Staff." HOSPITAL GANGRENE. BY JNO. R. MACKENZIE, M.D., WEATHERFORD, TEXAS. To the Editor of THE SOUTHERN PRACTITIONER: MY DEAR DOCTOR :-You remember the discussion at Louisville of the treatment of various diseases, notably dysentery-in the early part of the Civil War. It was clear in that discussion that necessity figured largely in the treatment; and that simple modes and means were most effective-as it was claimed-in all cases treated. During the Georgia Campaign in 1864, it was my fortune to be a prisoner at Chattanooga, being kept there from May 19th to September 29th, in that year. In company with Surgeon Jas. Ware, of Louisiana; Surgeon Jones, of Arkansas, and Assistant Surgeons Jones, of Louisiana, Monroe, of Alabama, and Brengle, of Maryland, I was on duty in the prison wards for the entire time while there. Sometime during the summer Gen. Wheeler made a raid in rear of Chattanooga and destroyed the track of the Nashville & Chattanooga R. R. closing communication for some time. This raid of Gen. Wheeler made many things scarce, and for three or four weeks there were no hospital supplies allowed for the wounded Confederate prisoners. After usiug up all the sheets and pillow-cases we could steal for bandages, etc., we were simply compelled to sit idly by and look with horror on the wounds not dressed for days. In the meantime gangrene and erysipelas were prevailing largely in all the wards. The treatment of those hospital terrors by the Federal surgeons were mainly by amputation, excision, bromine, etc. Our treatment in the main was with iron and arsenic. With the absence of facilities for dressing our wounded there came a horde of common green flies which filled every acessible space on or about our patients with their larvæ, and, of course within forty-eight hours we had an overwhelming mass of full grown maggots to contend with. For a day or so we looked and wondered, but imagine our surprise and gratification when we found as a finale to this raid of maggots, that every wound which had been thus invaded (and few had escaped) was thoroughly cleaned of the gangrenous accumulation, and showed up healthy granulations. The result of all this was that thereafter we lost none from gangrene. The readers of THE PRACTITIONER may comment or speculate on this brief history as they may see fit, but it occurred as I have briefly stated. It might be asked whether the experiment was tried afterward, the answer is yes, in superficial wounds, with like results; however, we endeavored to exclude the green flies in the more serious wounds. |