Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-07-27
An Alarming Relapse.

An Alarming kelapses
Only less startling than the news of the
attempted assassination, July I'd, was the dis
patch flashed over the country, on Saturday,
that the president had been taken suddenly
worse, and that the consulting physicians
had been hastily summoned by special train
from New York and Philadelphia. The
scenes of intense solicitude witnessed three
weeks ago were all repeated with, If posi-
BILE, deeper shade Of interest on Sunday,
since hope, akin to reasonable assurance,
had been kindled by the latest dispatches
that the president would recover, and not
breath of adverse intimation had been
breathed in the public ear to prepare it
for the sudden revulsion from bright hope
to blank despair.
Briefly stated, the facts seem TO be that
the president exhibited, on Saturday morn
ing, the most alarming symptoms of an un-
favorable change in his condition. He suf-
fered chill early in the morning, and the
pulse and temperature rapidly rose. The
chill was repeated during the day. The I'M
favorable change was attributed to partial
stoppage in the discharge of pus from the
wound. An examination detected the for
nation of an abscess, or pus cavity, below the
mouth Of the wound DIR. Agnew expressed
his confident belief that he could reach the
abscess with the knife. The operation was
undertaken and successfully accomplished.
In explaining the nature of the operation, DR.
Reyburn makes the following statement
"The direction taken by the ball after it
entered the body was forward and slightly
downward until it struck one of the ribs.
1t was thence DETECTED still further down.
ward and little to the right so as to make
an acute angle with the line of the back.
In other words, when probe was introduced
in the wound to depth of three or three
and half inches, its direction was such
that its inner end was only about an inch
and half from the outside of the body at
a point lower down. The examination
which was made in the presence of Drs.
Agnew and Hamilton Sunday morning
showed that pus cavity had formed in the
where it glanced from the rib, and that this
cavity could be reached by direct incision
three inches below the mouth of the wound.
1t was decided at once to perform the oper-
alton. No anesthetics were used, but the
part to be operated upon was benumbed by
the spray of ether, and wide cut was made
into the pus cavity, which was reached at
depth of little more than an inch. The
discharge which followed the opening of the
pus cavity was entirely satisfactory to the
surgeons, sand was soon followed by relief to
the patient. A drainage tube has been
placed in the incision, and will remain there
for the present. If the wound discharges
freely through the new opening, the tube
may perhaps be withdrawn from the old
one in order to allow the latter to heal. The
incision made to-day is in direct line with
the deeper parts of the wound, and it is
thought that the pus will escape through it
without any of the distractions which i'm
peded its outflow along the track of the ball,
and which caused the pus cavity" In reply
to the question whether another pus cavity
is likely to form and bring about a recur-
renee of the alarming symptoms of yester
day, DR.. Reyburn said: al cannot answer
positively, but as the pus now has free egress
l do not think it probable that another cav
ity will FORM" Upon being asked whether
there were or had been any symptoms in the
presidents case of pyemia or blood-poison-
ing, DR.. Reyburn said: " None whatever.
pyemia, but it is also symptom of various
other complications, and it does not point
to pyemia in the presidents case. The pus
continues healthy and the characteristic
symptoms of pyemia are all wanting. You
may say upon my authority that no indica-
lions Of blood-poisoning have been observed,
and that we have no reason to expect any,"
Few people have realized the critical ma
tins from the White House have, no doubt,
been correct statements of the condition of
the president, but people generally had, in
the exhilaration of his almost assured re-
covery, forgotten to consider the reports rel
atively, and so have fallen into the way of
regarding the president as comfortably sick,
without understanding or approaching the
imminent danger in which he has lain
from the first day of his suffering. The re-
lapse on Saturday brings out, in bold relief,
the critical nature of the presidents wounds.
The peril which the surgeons knife success
fully warded off on Sunday may assail him
again at point beyond the reach of surgical
skill The unknown track and the unknown
locality of the bullet are the elements from
which fatal surprises may at any moment
spring. Still the surgeons bid us hope, and
it is the duty of all to emulate the calm for
titude and serene confidence displayed by
the president and his undaunted wife. If
the president survives, long weeks of peril
GUS suffering are still in store for him, and
painful anxiety for the nation. As the
stream of life in that White House chamber
GIBBS and flows, people must not be unduly
elated by CLEAN Of hope, or cast down by
reverses that may be but temporary, and
would inevitably attend much less seri
ll,... l..