GRAPHIC
Medical/Surgical History--Part II, Volume II
Chapter VII.--Injuries Of The Pelvis.
Section III.--On Injuries Of The Genital Organs.
CASE 1056.--Colonel Joshua L. C----, 20th Maine, was wounded at Petersburg, June 17, 1864, and taken to the hospital of the 1st division, Fifth Corps. Surgeon W. R. DeWitt, jr., U. S. V., reported that "a conoidal ball penetrated both hips, and was extracted," and that Surgeon M. N. Townsend, 44th New York, was detailed to accompany the patient to City Point, when, by direction of Surgeon E. B. Dalton, U. S. V., he was placed on the hospital transport Connecticut and conveyed to Annapolis, and promoted Brigadier-General of Volunteers and Brevet Major-General. Surgeon B. A. Vauderkieft, U. S. V., reported that he "reached the hospital at that place very comfortably on June 20, 1864, with a shot wound involving both buttocks and the urethra." The progress and treatment does not appear on the hospital case-books, but in a letter to Surgeon J. H. Brinton, U'. S. V., September 4, 1864, Dr. Vanderkieft states: "I send you a catheter used by Brigadier-General J. L. C ., U. S.V. As you will perceive, it is covered by a calculous deposit. This catheter was but five days in the bladder, and was repeatedly covered in the same way. I think it a very important specimen, illustrating the necessity of often renewing cathethers when they are to be used à demeurc. The history you shall get when the patient is discharged." The specimen referred to is accurately represented, of half size in the wood-cut (FIG. 256). The patient was furloughed September 20, 1864, and mustered out January 15, 1866, and pensioned. The promised report of the case was not received. From Pension Examiner O. Mitchell's report, September 18, 1873. it appears that "the ball entered the right hip in front of and a little below the right trochanter major, passed diagonally backward, and made exit above and posteriorly to the left great trochanter. The bladder was involved in the wound at some portion, as the subsequent history of escape of urine from the track of the wound and its extravasation testified. He very often suffers severe pain in the pelvic region. The chief disability resulting indirectly from the wound is the existence of a fistulous opening of the urethra, half :m inch or more in length, just anterior to the scrotum; this often becomes inflamed. The greater part of the urine is voided through the fistula, the fistula itself resulting from the too long or too continuous wearing of a catheter. No change has resulted since the last examination; disability total." This invalid was paid to June 4, 1873, at $30 a month.
M. E. Wolf