File:Vessels of Pvt. George Clark (SP 74), National Museum of Health and Medicine (5078465457).jpg

Vessels of Pvt. George Clark (SP 74), National Museum of Health and Medicine

Description: The aorta, cava, and branches with a ligation of the common iliac artery of Private George Clark, Company I, 4th New Jersey. Private Clark was admitted to the hospital with swelling of the left thigh which was treated with an operation. After the first operation failed, it was operated on again, putting a ligature in the trunk of the common iliac, shortly after which Clark died of peritonitis. The autopsy showed an aneurismal varix, a dilated vein interrupting normal blood flow. This specimen was offered to the Army Medical Museum. Caption reads: “International Exposition. Philadelphia, 1876. War Department, Surgeon General’s Office, Army Medical Museum. Surgical Photograph No. 74. Prepared under the supervision of Assistant Surgeon George A. Otis, U.S.A. by order of the Surgeon General.”

History is on verso: "Surgeon General’s Office, Army Medical Museum. Photograph No. 74.—Aorta, Cava, and Branches, showing a Ligation of the Common Iliac Artery. Private George Clark, I, 4th New Jersey, was admitted into the Warrenton General Field Hospital, in August, 1863, on account of a swelling of the left thigh, which was supposed to be due either to a malignant tumor or an aneurism, resulting from a wound of the vessel, eight years previously, by the blade of a pocket knife. He was transferred to Washington, and thence to the Ward Hospital, at Newark, where he was admitted on October 13, 1863. On February 6, 1864, the left external iliac was tied, by Acting Assistant Surgeon S.B. Cutter, by direction of the Surgeon George Taylor, U.S.A. After the operation the tumor diminished in size, and for several weeks a cure was anticipated; subsequently the swelling gradually returned, and in September, 1864, it was greater than before the operation. On September 17, 1864, a ligature was placed on the trunk of the common iliac. The patient survived the operation five days and died of peritonitis. The autopsy showed that the disease was aneurismal varix, the communication between the femoral artery and the enlarged vein being at the lower part of Scarpa’s triangle. The femoral vessels were not preserved. The injected specimen was forwarded by Assistant Surgeon Clinton Wagner, U.S.A., and is numbered 3597, Army Medical Museum. A detailed account of the first operation is published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. XLVIII, p. 36. See Second Surgical Volume of the Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion p. 336. Photographed at the Army Medical Museum. By order of the Surgeon General: George A. Otis, Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A., Curator, A.M.M.”

Date: circa 1864-1865

Photo ID: SP 74

Source Collection: OHA 82: Surgical Photographs

Related material: Specimen 3597

Repository: National Museum of Health and Medicine, Otis Historical Archives