Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1881-09-30
The AUTOPSY.

lhC hutOpS1s
The following paragraphs from the clin
ital report OF the autopsy on the Presidents
body are important:
al was found that the ball, after fracturing
the right eleventh rib, had passed through the
spinal column IN front Of the spinal canal, frac-
turing the body Of the first lumbar vertebra,
driving number of small fragments Of bone
into the adjacent soft parts, and lodging Just
be low the poncreas, about two inches and a
half to tie left Of the spine and below the peri
t0neum, where it had become completely en-
cysted.
" The immediate cause Of death was second
ary hemorrhnge from one OF the mesentric
arteries adjoining tie track OF the ball, the
blood rupturing the peritoneum and nearly
pint escaping intn the abdominal cavity. This
hcinorrluge is believed to have been the cause
of the severe pain in the lower part Of the chest
| complained oil ust before DEATH"
A correspondent summing up says {:
"When it was found that the ball had com.
plelely circulated the body, and had
reached position near the heart, the won
der is that the President had not been
killed in the removal from Washington"
The autopsy makes several remarkable
slowings:
1t shows that the surgeons in attendance,
Notwithstanding their skill and patient
investigation, knew very little about the
case.
It shows that the crilicising surgeons,
not in attendance, knew rs little, il not less.
1t shows that the eccentric movements of
bullet, after it enters the body, defy sur
gical science, and that il is mainly luck if
the ball is found.
1t unbulances and unhinges the inductit n
balance.
1t makes DIR. Bliss frequent assurances
that the wound was getting along all right
look absurd
1t indicates that DR.. Hammond, had he
been in the case, couldn't have saved lie
life Of the President
1t fails to give much comfort to those
physicians who, had they been in control
Of the treatment, would have inserted n
finger in the wound. soon after the shoot
ing, and pulled out the pieces Of broken
rib, and the piece of cloth which was car
ried in with the ball. This still looks like
the thing which common sense and rea
sonably adventurous surgeon wonld have
done but we see now that it would no,
, have saved the Presidents life.
1t relieves Washington Of much of the
malarial opprobrinm henped upon ii. II
wasn't the Potomac Flats killing the Pres
ident, hut the assassin'a bullet.
Ii demOnsl rates that the removal to Ions
Branch was not advantageous; but ON tn,
( contrary was n hazardous expedition, mas
much M il might have hnstened death.
1t almost turns the laugh on The docto
who, in recent interview, declared lha
the one thing necessary was to change tn,
, doctors and muses., and turn out all thos
whose faces had become familiar to tn
President during his long struggle.
\ IL shows that those who held that tn
: President should have been treated like
common laboring man, and his woun,
probed, were probably wrong. The bal
: would not have been reached, and III
;, probing surgeons, had they taken thi
9 view, would no doubt have been charge
' with killing their patient.
1t shows, in brief, that at the beginnin
= there was scarcely tn. one chance in on
hundred which the surgeons promised
G Cincinnati Enquirer.