Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-10-01
[Chicago Medical Review. New York Cor
respondence, to be published Oct. 81

fatal?"
"By no means, here in the second edition o.
DIR. FRANK HAMILToN's ExcELLENr TEXT
rafiar.. m BOOK a0G}e 5iii
on military surgery, page 1O6, case is re
ported, that of William Nedden, private Twen
tieth volunteers, wounded by rifle ball March
16, 1865, which traversed his loins and
"grooyed" the second lumbar vertebra. Par
aiysis Immediately ensued, as in the president's
case, and similarly disappeared. In Septem.
ber of the same year asmall piece of bone with
an attached fragment of lead was discharged
and by September 10, 1867, only slight para
lysis of the bladder remained, and the
wound had closed. There was o slight
posterior curvature of the spine in
the region of the first three lumbar
yertebra. The ball was detected two years
and a half later in the lumbar muscles of the
opposite side, fattened at one end, and en-
crusted with some calcareous deposit. This
patient mad6fa good recovery and was ex.
hibited before the New York Pathological
society, the members present all concurring in
the belief that the second lumbar vertebra
had been uninjured. So you see such cases
and this one is as much like the presidents as
two cases can well be--are
NOT NECESSARILY FATAL"
"Do YOU think that the presence of the
bullet, or that of spintered fragments OF
bone, may be considered to have been the
chief sources of irritation in the presidents
case?"
az think there can be no doubt that the bull
let per Sc had very little to do with the seri-
GUS relapses that marked the progress OF the
case?"
"What in your opinion was the cause OF
death?'
81 must say that do not see my way sufa-
ciently clearly through the inherent contra
dictions of the post-mortem report to give q
yery positive answer to the Immediate cause OF
DEATH the actual cause in my opinion was
PYAEMIA DUE TO NoN-DIs1NTECTIoN OF THE
TRACK OF THE BALL"
$50 you do not consider the post-mortem
report very satisfactory one?"
"Certainly not the one thus far given to the
profession, but shall reserve my opinion on
that point, at least in part, as it is intimated
that more complete history and post-mortem
record will be published before long.
"What is your opinion as to the relation
between the secondary hemorrhage, found af-
ter death, aud the pain experienced by the
president Just before he died ?"
"Ido not think there Is any. I am, as l in
timated, not very well satisfied in my own
mind as to the character of that alleged hem
orrhage, but there is no doubt in my mind
that the president 'i
DIED WITH HEART cLoT,
such as is formed in any prolonged agony,
and particularly in exhausted subjects. y
"Do you agree with DR.. Bliss in calling
such condition neuralgia of the hearth"
1.-THE term in that association is nonsense" /"
"Do YOU not believe that il surgeon en-
dowed with the tactus erudltus had carefully
examined the track of the ball, he would have
found some irregularity about the vertebral
body which might have led him to further ex-
plorations, and to perhaps rational surmise
as to the location of the ball ?' ~
ssUNoUEsTIoNABLY,f
and the hole cut through 80 spongy bone
would have been found 30 clean and direct
that NeIaton's probe could have been car
ried through and the ball po ssibly be de-
tected. +"
'If the ball had been detected. an operation
for its removal would have been very grave
surgical undertakings"
"Certainly not as serious one as Jumbo
colotoDy or nephrectomy."
s'But see here that in this nights tele-
gram Dr. Hamilton is reported as saying in
a sort of ironical manner that the bullet could
have been removed If the lumbar vertebra had
been dissected out,
THE AoRTA vENA oAvA AND THE THoRACIC
DUCT DIVIDED, .
and q wound twelve inches deep made by the
surgeons knife, by which time the patient
would have been dead"
"If that statement is correctly reported, ]
can consider it nothing less than an inexcus-
able perversion of facts and an intentional de-
ception of the public" lIa
IsTlo ron think tho anr0anna In n charOn
could have made the mistake Of taking fis-
tulous tract for the bullet channel II an ade-
/ quate examination of the wound had been
made in the first placer"
"No, for the simple reason that the fistula
did not form for many days later"
"Do you think that anything in the history
| of the caee or the post-mortem revelations
would have justified an abdominal section, for
| the purpose of removing the ball?'
"There is a curious contradiction on that
| head in to-night's Record. Here is an editor
| ial, it is said by some one who ought to have
| some information to justify so remarkable q
statement, that the bullet was found among
| the intestines after they had been removed
| from the abdominal cavity. That does not
| tally with the language of the autopsy report,
| which states that the bullet was behind the
| dinary dissecting. If the report is correct, an
| attempt to open the abdominal cavity would
have been justifiable."
ssDo you feel satisfied that the secondary
hemorrhage was the immediate cause Of death
| or had anything to do with its"
| ssIf there was such hemorrhage some ex-
| planation as to its nature and origin should
| have been made. The natural euppoeitlon II
| that there was lucrative and pecrotic usure
| of the blood-vessel; in that case the hemor-
rhage may have been slow and gradual one.
II is very unfortunate for science that the body
was injected with chloride of zinc. Such IN
lection may break and dislodge clots, and it i:
very easy for DIR. Bliss to deny the existence o
| heart clot when the embalmer destroyed L
eight hours beforehand"
doctor, would you say that the President
treatment had been buDgling all the va.
through"
1.-THE FATAL NEGLECT,
in my opinion-I do not say mistake, for mis-
takes are pardonable; neglects never-the fata