Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-09-24
TELEGRAPHIC.
SPECIAL TO THE REcoRD-uNIos
DOMESTIC NEWS.
The Post Moriem Exposure Continued.

The Post M0rtem Exposure Continued.
WASHINGTON, September 23d-One of the
most startling features of the post mortem
exposure will be the history of the search for
the ball. One hour was passed III cutting for
it. Then the bowels were removed and
placed loose in wash-bowl. Another hour
was SPENT and then some one looked in the
contents of the wash. bowl, and discovered
the encysted ball among the intestines vet
the autopsy located this ball in the muscles
of the back. General Swain is SO indignant
over the report of the autopsy that nothing
will prevent him from telling the true story
to the public after Garfield is buried.
He has told the story, however, to
several medical friends in the city, and
from one of them the following verbal
statement was taken: In the first place,
the post mortem which was attempted by
this man Lamb was so unsatisfactory to DR..
AgDew that he performed the last part of it
himself The physicians in charge were
urged very hard to send for eminent pathol-
ogists not connected with the case-two from
Philadelphia and two from New York-but
they would not do so, under a plea that it
would reflect upon them. After they made
an incisinn into the abdomen they broke
open a seek from four to six inches long. con-
tanning large amount of matter, which run
into the bowels. They then proceeded to
search down the supposed track OF the bullet,
between the muscles of the abdomen and the
interior wall of the abdomen. Then they
took his intestines out and put them into n
washbowl. Then they further pursued their
search for the bullet. Failing to find it
where they expected, they looked for it in
tie intestines, ard found it in the back part
of the mass in the washbowl. They claimed
that they could tell where the bullet was 10
Gated, but the facts show they were mistaken.
There was no evidence of laceration of the
vertebla, and the track of the wound from
the place of its entrance had all healed up,
and was doing no harm, and the ball was well
encysted in long pouch. It could
neum, else how could they have taken
it out with the intestines The ball, being
encysted, could not have ruptured the artery.
They did not examine the stomach they did
not open the intestines they simply opened
the chest and raisel the lungs, and called them
healthy. When some one insisted on Their
examination, they were not removed, bus cut
into. AS soon as they were cut into pns
| flowed out freely and copiously. They closed
them up, and said there was no liberation
there was no abscess there. An abscess was
found in the left kidney, and they said it waR
not an abscess but on reaching the righkz
kidney the abscess was so large that they
were compelled to admit that thert.
was an abscess, and Agnew, being aske&
if the left was not the same, answered,
"Yes, precisely" "D Do you think the wound
track of the ball had healed the ball Wes
encysted, and the vertebie showed no eyi--
dence that it was injured. There was moth
ing to indicate any injury of the spinal cord
at all, but there were large abscesses in and
about the liver from four to six inches long.
They must have been the result Of s oletOf
blood formed soon after the shooting, ar d1l4s
blood, becoming putrid and disorganized-
the whole system became poisoned, and was
the cause of these assesses. If this blood had
been withdrawn at the time, there would
have been nothing to produce these abscesses.
That could have been done by an aspiration,
by the use of an ordinary aspirator. They
could have told by the hardness and firnness
of the parts at TIE time that clot of blood was
there. You remember that Surgeon-G General
Wales. of the Davy, said it was there, and
marked out the size of it. The ball entered
the cavity of the abdomen. / don't see how
it was possible for the ball to have wounded
the eleventh rib, jumped down over the
twelfth and wounded the vertebi@, that.
has no rib attached to it. They say the
eleventh rib was wounded, and that the YER
teble was penetrated. They had stated
all the time that the long pus canal
was the track of the ball, and it was
subject of probing all the time. OF course
they have got to make some excuse. It Is
about as consistent for physician to make
his own post mortein examination as it is for
real estate agent to make his own surveys.
There is no doubt that death was caused by
blood poisoning" The revelations of the post
mortem, when officially made, will create
great sensation in the medical world It win
be remembered that Boynton has all along
told the truth of the sick-room. When he
ard General Swain rip open the report of the
autopsy they will be so fortified by facts Sc /.
to support everything they charge.