The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-16 00:00:00

PRESIDENT GARFIELD.

At eight o'clock on Friday evening in last week, the
physicians issued a bulletin to the effect that the Pre-
sident's condition continued favourable. He had
taken more nutriment than on the previous days. His
pulse was 108, and his temperature 10P3. The
wound was tame antiseptically dressed on Friday.
The patient was repeatedly sponged all over with a
weak solution of carbolic acid in water applied by
a hand atomizer. These sponge baths gave the
patient great refreshment. The weather became
cooler on Friday evening, the mercury falling below
70, thus increasing his cotnfort. There is as yet no
indication of secondary inflammation or blood poison-
ing. He rested well throughout the night, but his
sleep was disturbed once by pains in his legs, which
quickly yielded, however, to simple treatment.
- - - - -

. _
An apparatus for cooling the chamber, by means of
a fan in the basement supplying artificially cooled
air, was put in operation on Saturday.
The physicians at nine o'clock on Saturday morning
issued the following bulletin :
"The President has passed a tranquil night. He
says that he now feels quite comfortable. We re-
gard the general progress of the case as very satis-
factory. His pulse is 100; temperature 994; and
respiration 24.

Mrs. Garfield again drove out on Saturday morn-
ing

Sympathetic telegrams have been received from Mr.
John Bright, Dean Stanley, and Messrs. Siemens
Brothers. The latter sent the first telegram through
the new Atlantic cable to the President, expressing
their wishes for his speedy recovery.

A telegram was received on, Saturday from the Right
Hon. William E. Gladstone and Mrs. Gladstone. It
says :—" We are much touched by the telegrams about
President Garfield's condition. We feel profound
sympathy on the occasion of the dastardly attempt,
and we watch anxiously the accounts of the Pre-
sident's progress

PHILADELPHIA, June 11.

The physicians' bulletin issued at one p.m. on
Sunday states that the President's symptoms continue
favourable. Pulse, 102 ; temperature, 100 ; re-
spiration, 22. Reporting afterwards to the con-
sulting physicians, they state that such slight
changes as have taken place are favourable.
At about seven on Saturday evening a hypodermic
injection of a quarter of a grain of morphia
was given, and the President slept more
naturally during the night than since his
injhries. He takes nourishment well, and appears
better than hitherto. During the last twenty-four
hours he has taken altogether fourteen ounces of milk
and one ounce of rum. This morning again he re-
ceived ten grains bisulphate of quinine. Both on Fri-
day and Satarday the wound was dressed antisepti-
cally twice each twenty-four hours. This morning it
discharged rather less pus than yesterday, but its ap-
pearance is healthy.

July 12.
The President steadily improves. The physicians
think that the danger line has been passed. Appre-
hension is no longer felt about his recovery. His
chamber is kept at a steady temperature of 75.

The Times has a leader upon the wound of President
Garfield, from
_which we make the following extract :
_ _ _ _

The time which has elapsed since the infliction of the
wound upon President Garfield appears to be sufficient to
allow of an estimate being formed of the prospects of the
case ; and the reports, which during the first twenty-four
hours pointed to a condition of imminent peril, have since
become such as to encourage hope of ultidiate recovery.
The immediate shock to the system occasioned by the wound
having passed away, and the dangers of primary hemorrhage
having been escapee, the risks now chiefly to be apprehended
are those incidental to the lodgment of a foreign
substance or substances, of unknown nature ankt in
an unknown position, and possibly capable of producing
abscesses by local irritation, or future secondary hemorrhage
from vessels which may have been bruised without bei.:g
divided. According to the telegraphic accounts, the bullet
entered on the right of the spine, between the tenth and
eleventh ribs, and passed downward and 14:rwards flu 00,11
the right lobe of the liver, to lodge, as IL f. smtpps, ii, mt he
front wall of the abdomen. On the most important eLliafilt
in the case, surgically speaking, no information has been
given; it not having been authoritatively stated whether any
portion of clothing was carried before the bullet, and thus
driven into the wound. This has, no doubt, been ascer-
tained, as it generally can be, by a careful examination of
the perforated garments; for if the holes in them can be
put together, so as to show that nothing is missing, it will
be a safe inference that the wound contains the 'ball and
nothing more, and, if this be so, the prospects of recovey
are almost indefinitely greater than if fragments of cotton
or woollen stuff are also imbedded. The latter not only
excite more irritation than metal, but they are also liable
to carry into the wound contaminating materials of
various kinds, derived from the atmosphere. In the old
days of pistol duelling, the great secret of killing an ad-
versary, assuming that lie was hit, was the employment of
a small charge of powder, such that the spherical bullet
punched out pieces of the clothing through which it passed,
and carried them into the body without having power
enough to drive ti,ein through it, The increased force givcn
to the modern projectile, and its usually c,inical shape, are
elements in favour of the person wounded ; the former allow-
ing it to pass through the body, the latter rendering it less
liable to punch out pieces than simply to perforate. If the
surmise be accurate, that the ball in President's Garfield's
case has lodged in the front wall of the abdomen, although
It has not come quite through, it has yet reached the position
in which its presence is not likely to be a source of serious
mischief to any vital organ.

The reports state that the wound is being dressed "anti.
septically," and this means that immunity will be secured,
by one of the greatest discoveries in the history of surgery,
from what would, only a few years ago, have been a most
pressing danger—namely the decomposition of the dis-
charges, and their absorption into the circulation. In every
gunshot wound, the walls of the bullet-track are so bruised
as to loss their vitality, and no healing is possibie until
this lining of killed tissue has been separated and cast off.
In former times, as long as any portion of it remained, it
remained as a possible source of blood-poisoning and
of urgent peril ; but Mr. Lister's discovery of the means
of preventing decomposition in discharges has almost
entirely set this source of peril aside. It cannot be said that
all risk of blood-poisoning is absent, because it might arise
from the bullet itself, or from something carried in together
with it; but the ordinary form, or rather the form that
once was ordinary, is now scarcely to be feared. The same
discovery, which has robbed all wounds, whether accidental
or surgical, of one of their chief dangers, has rendered
it possible to inflict them with safety in situations which
the surgeon was formerly compelled to avoid; and, if
it should hereafter be found desirable to undertake
any operation for the removal of the projectile, the
necessary incisions will certainly be made under like anti-
septic precautions. At present, according to the best mili-
tary surgery of this country, no such attempt would be
made unless called for by the appearance of urgent symp-
toms ; and it is therefore possible that the bullet may be
left undisturbed, and that it may even be carried by the
President throughout the remainder of what we all hope will
be a long and prosperous career. Every campaign supplies
instances in which bullets are left impacted in situations
in which they do no harm; and many old soldiers
could point to positions in which they were lying
hid. As a rule, however, when a bullet is in an
accessible region, its removal, if not required before,
should be attempted as soon as the patient is otherwise out
of danger; for any foreign substance is liable to occasion pain
or distress, as by leading to the formation of abscesses, or by
interfering in some way with the performance of natural
functions; and many instances have been known in which
bullets have migrated from positions in which they were
harmless into others in which they occasioned inconvenience
or even danger. For the present, nevertheless, and as long
as the favourable condition of the patient continues, as shown
by normal temperature, by ability to take food and to sleep,
and by the absence of any symptoms to indicate present
peril, so long, no doubt, the practical wisdom of "letting
well alone" will be fully recognised by the skilful medical
advisers by whom he is surrounded.