The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-09-09

tions-chronic and acute diarrhea and
dysentery. The bowel affections appear
to have been due to the diet, the habits
of the patients, the depressed, detected
state of the nervous system and moral
and intellectual powers, and to the
etiluvia arising from the decomposing
animal and vegetable filth The effects
of salt meat, and an unvarying diet of
cornmeal, with but few vegetables, and
imperfect supplies of vinegar and strip,
were manifested in the great prevalence
of scurvy. This disease, without doubt,
was also influenced to an important ex-
tent in its origin and course by the foul
animal emanations.
Sd. From the sameness of the food
and from the action of the poisonous
gases in Stockade and hospital, the blood
was altered in its constitution, even be-
fore the manifestation of actual disease.
In both the well and the sick the red
corpuscles were diminished and in all
diseases uncomplicated with infamma-
ton the fibrous element was deficient.
In cases Of liberation of the mucous
membrane of the intestinal canal the
fibrous element of the blood was in
creased, while in simple diarrhea, I'M
complicated with liberation, it was
either dimini:hed or else remained sta
tionary. Heart clots were very COM
mon, if not universally present, in cases
Of liberation of the intestinal mucous
membrane, while in the uncomplicated
cases of dlarrhea and scurvy the blood
was fluid and did not coagulate readily,
| and the heart clots and fibrous concrer
tons were almost universally absent.
"The presence Of those clots in the
cases of hospital gangrene, while they
were absent in the cases in which there
was no infammatory symptoms, sustains
the conclusion that hospital gangrene is
a species of inflammation, imperfect and
Irregular though it may be in It's prog
ress, in which the fibrous element and
coagulation Of the blood are increased,
even in those who are suffering from
such a condition of the blood, aud from
such diseases as are naturally accom-
panied with a decrease in the fibrous
constituent.
9th. The fact that hospital gangrene
appeared in the Stockade first, and
originated spontaneously without any
previous contagion, and occurred spo-
radically all over the Stockade and
prison hospital, was proof positive that
this disease will arise whenever the con-
ditions of crowding, filth, foul air, and
bad diet are present. The civilizations
from the prison and Stockade appeared
to exert their effects to considerable
distance outside of these localities.
18th. A scorbutic condition of the
system appeared to favor the origin of
ulcers, which frequently took on true
hospital gangrene. Scurvy and hospital
gangrene frequently existed in the same
individual. In such cases vegetable diet,
with vegetable acids, would remove the
scorbutic condition without curing the
hospital gangrene. From the results of
the existing war for the establishment of
the independence of the Confederate
States, as well as from the published
observations of DIR. Trotter, Sir Gilbert
Blame, and others of the English navy
and army, it is evident that the scor-
butte condition Of the system, especially
in crowded ships and camps, is most
favorable to the origin and spread of
foul ulcers and hospital gangrene.
81 9th. Gangrenous spots followed by
rapid destruction of tissue appeared in
some cases where there had been no
known wound. Without such well-estab-