Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel PrisonsDay, W. W. (William Worthy)
History
Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel Prisons
Day, W. W. (William Worthy)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
Blane upon scorbutic ulcers.
6th. Gangrenous spots followed by rapid destruction of tissue
appeared in some cases where there had been no known wound. Without
such well established facts, it might be assumed that the disease
was propagated from one patient to another. In such a filthy and
crowded hospital as that of the Confederate States Military Prison
at Andersonville, it was impossible to isolate the wounded from the
sources of actual contact of the gangrenous matter. The flies
swarming over the wounds and over filth of every kind. The filthy,
imperfectly washed and scanty supplies of rags, and the limited
supply of washing utensils, the same wash-bowl serving for scores of
patients, were sources of such constant circulation of the
gangrenous matter that the disease might rapidly spread from a
single gangrenous wound. The fact already stated, that a form of
moist gangrene, resembling hospital gangrene, was quite common in
this foul atmosphere, in cases of dysentery, both with and without
the existence of the disease upon the entire surface not only
demonstrates the dependence of the disease upon the state of the
constitution, but proves in the clearest manner that neither the
contact of the poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the direct action
of the poisonous atmosphere upon the ulcerated surface is necessary
to the developement of the disease.
7th. In this foul atmosphere amputation did not arrest hospital
gangrene, the disease almost invariably returned. Almost every
amputation was followed finally by death, either from the effects of
gangrene or from the prevailing diarrhea or dysentry. Nitric acid
and escharotics generally in this crowded atmosphere, loaded with
noxious effluvia, exerted only temporary effects; after their
application to the diseased surfaces, the gangrene would frequently
return with redoubled energy; and even after the gangrene had been
completely removed by local and constitutional treatment, it would
frequently return and destroy the patient. As far as my observation
extended, very few of the cases of amputation for gangrene
recovered. The progress of these cases was frequently very
deceptive. I have observed after death the most extensive
disorganization of the structures of the stump, when during life
there was but little swelling of the part, and the patient was
apparently doing well. I endeavored to impress upon the medical
officers the view that in this disease treatment was almost useless,
without an abundant supply of pure, fresh air, nutritious food, and
tonics and stimulants. Such changes, however, as would allow of the
isolation of the cases of hospital gangrene appeared to be out of
the power of the medical officers.
8th. The gangrenous mass was without true pus, and consisted chiefly
of broken-down, disorganized structures. The reaction of the
gangrenous matter in certain stages was alkaline.
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