Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-03

had LOT Dr. D0yntOn INSISTED upon 1t.
And though it was suspected that the i'm
mediate cause of death was enlbolism of
the heart, that organ was not examined a.
all. Again, though it was announced. that
death resulted from secondary hen4orrhage,
and though it was subsequently, stated
that one of the mesenteric arteries had
been ruptured, it does not appear from
the detailed report that any such dis
coyery was made. Blood was found
in the abdominal cavity, but there does
not seem to have been any certainty as to
where it came from. The actual location
of the bullet was go entirely unsupported
that it was taken out with the abdominal
viscera without being noticed, and when
at length it was searched for, the viscera
were 60 displaced that it was impossible TO
speak with certainty as to its exact posi-
ton in the body. Nor was this all. A
catheter was introduced into the supposed
track OF the ball, and this catheter was
cut down upon. Then it was discovered
that the catheter had doubled upon itself,
and that the length of the pus channel was
really much less than had been supposed.
OF course it follows from this that the
same mistake had been made during
the patients life. The catheter had been
doubling upon itself all the time, but as it
came out straight the surgeons had sup
posed it to have entered its whole length.
When the surgeons found that their
diagnoses had been entirely mistaken, they
appear to have agreed quite suddenly that
this did not really matter, for that the
President must have died in any event.
The reason they gave for this conclusion
was that the injury to the spine was fatal,
or, ii not that precisely, that the pro-
lection of fragments of the vertebre into
the adjoining soft parts must have pro-
duced pyemia, and so death. But an ex-
animation of the Medical and Surgical
History Of the Rebellion tends to render
these conclusions less obvious than the sur
geons would desire; for it there appears
that recovery was had In not less than
seventy cases of shot wounds involving the
lumbar vertebra, and in several of these
cases the injury to the spine was far
greater than in that of President Garfield ];
while it is to be observed that fragments
Of the bone were repeatedly removed from
the adjacent soft parts, and without caus-
ing that "instant death" which the coun.
try is told must have followed any attempt
to probe the actual track of the bullet in
the Presidents case. It is true that
wounds of the spine have always been
very dangerous, and that during the war
there were more deaths than recoveries
from such injuries. But the surgical
records show that recoveries from even
worse wounds than President Garfeld's did
occur only it must be admitted that in
those cases the surgeons appear to have as
certained the real character of the wounds,
and did not probe pus channels for seven
or eight weeks. The fact that the sur
geons at Elberon allowed an embalmer to
inject the veins of the body before they
held the autopsy, has been Justly COM
mented on as remark able, since it is obvi-
GUS that this injection may have pro-
duced changes in the internal conditions
capable of misleading the surgeons as to
the state of the organs at the moment of
death. Taking the whole case together, it
must be said that the post norton is equally
surprising and unsatisfactory, and that
Notwithstanding their professional emf
hence the surgeons have managed to create
widespread suspicion as to the treatment
OF the President, while they have mani.
tested singular indisposition both to as
certain and to publish the whole truth of
the post morton discoveries. 1t is not to be
wondered at, under the circumstances, that
unlearned men should be inclined to doubt
the value of medical knowledge for some
time to come.