New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-30
"GOOD JOURN1LISup oND Sy-pcrp

GOOD JOURNALISM" and SURGERY
Our sciatic and scientific contemporary, The
Herdtd, is entitled to AN apology if in anything
IHE TRIBUNE has said regarding the very
learned dSquisitIons which it has given the
public upon the Presidents eleventh rib and
lilac region we have seemed TO be frivolous
and ilippant. There has been, we may perhaps
be permitted to remark, Il very visible dspo-
sition on the part OF the press of the country
to make light of and say iocose things about
the series of articles in The HeraM which that
journal itself is forced to admit did save
the Presidents life and sis the one and only
thing to which his recovery will be due, if
he RECEIVERS" But The TRIBUNE has from
the first regarded these disquisitions with too
much wonder and admiration to treat them
with anything but the seriousness which they
deserve. For we have observed that whenever
there is great central fact in the news of
the day chat the people must want 10 hear
about" our contemporary is usually up TO the
good journalism" which is cable and readyu
not only to "know all about it, but TO tell
all you know" So, though we could not. with
our experience in such matters be surprised AT
it, we did sit down in wonder and afmira-
ton at the thorough manner in which The
Herald diagnosed the whole business, tracing
at once the sinuosities of the ball and of the
attending surgeons and from so far off rs
Washington is from New York handling the
case with such confidence and skill as must have
abashed the entire medical profession. There
was no intention of flppancy when we said
The Herald startled the country and the medi-
cal profession with the profound observation
that =" Mr.. Gariield's eloquent foot has been
crying out for several days that the ball is on
the sciatic nerve" For, though it is "good
journalism to know all about gunshot wounds
we confess that it had not occurred to us that
" the dull surgeons Numbering about the
liver" were so entirely wrong about it,
1t seems, however, that the eloquent
foot" of the President made the mistake
common to elOquence. For, if we rightly
understand our contemporaries latest dag
nosis, the ball Is not on the sciatic
nerve, but sin the lilac region between the
psoas and lilac muscles, and as the crural
nerve passes down in the space between those
muscles, that is doubtless the nerve that is
hurt" The very latest diagnosis of "good
journalism then is that it is the crural and
not the sciatic nerve that is hurt. This. how
ever, does not alter the fact that the attend
ing surgeons must have been very "dulln To
have been Numbering about the liverr
'S S"pi'"'o VIM oiu'h 10 tiiitJ ~ great mistake
was made in the beginning in calling in the
aid of surgery when good journalism" whose
business it is to know all about gunshot
wounds" was at hand. And President Gar
field seems somehow to be followed bv q
strange fatality in such matters At the be-
ginning of the late campaign, when his per-
sonal character was assaileN more murferously
than his life has been in this case, our contem-
pOrary was if possible more eager to prescribe
than now, going so far as to offer its columns
for his defence. Later when it looked as
though his Administration would be q fail
ure If he did not fall back on "good
journalism which "knew all about tn
to find him Cabinet, our contemporary picked
him out several. But somehow he did NOT
take the prescription for his assailed personal
character in the one instance, nor adopt the
Cabinet recommendations in the other: and
sOmehOw-strangesi circumstance of .all-be
pulled through, survived the attack on his
character, and appointed very satisfactory
Cabinet So, on the whole, though we cannot
as journalists help feeling Inundated at the
thought that the Presidents life is to be saved
by surgery rather than by "good journalism
he may yet pull through the present peril.
1t would be better. of course. in all cases.