The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-19

sensational reports which have been circulated;"
that 'the disease has apparently made very
little progress within the past week.; that his
BODILY vigor is in great measure retained, as
the patient walks unaided to his basn and
stands during the act of gargling his throat" J"
and that ''the pulse is inclined to become slower
with increase of volume, and his temperature
has dropped to the normal"
Dr. Shrady concludes hs article by saying:
"Let US hope that the favorable indication may
not be without significance"
1t will be exceedingly gratifying to the public
to know that Dr. Shradr takes this more hope
full view of General Grants case, for they have
been anxiously watching the bulletins signed by
him and by DR.. Douglas expecting to hear at
any moment of the death of their
distinguished patient. The 'fayorable
Record spoke last week as mot without signif-
cance," has continued up to this time, and seems
to have become daily more marked, so that 1t is
suggested that the General may be able to drive
out, and possibly may even be removed to
more desirable climate.
But what are the Sensational reports which
have been circulated as to General Grants con-
dition, of which DIR. Shrady speaks in his
journal and whence have they come? So far as
we aware, the public anxiety has been all
along occasioned and occasioned only by the
physicians themselves-by DR.. Shrady and DIR.
Douglas.
Bulletins have been sent out by them at short
intervals, and in way to indicate that the pa
friends of General Grant. who were in commu-
nication with the physicians, also shared the
alarm of the public as to his danger of speedy
DEATH expecting that every day would be his
last. The newspapers have done nothing more
than report what they obtained from DR.. Doug
las and DR.. Shrady. and those others who were
near the General in his sick room, and near his
medical attendants.
1t is true that after it began to be rumored
that General Grants trouble was cancer DR.
n
Medical Record of Feb. q as follows:
There have been so many sensational stories
| concerning the precise character of the disease
of General Grants tongue and throat that it will
be gratifying to his many friends to learn that
all the more serious and alarming symptoms
connected with them have virtually disappeared.
1t was at one time feared, in professional circles
at least that the alterations of the tongue
and fauces were dependent upon malig-
nant disease not uncommon occurrence
at his time of life-as the result
Of local irritation from troublesome tooth. The
focus of the trouble on the side of the organ, the
| usual site of cancer, and the induration of the
base of the sore, were omnously confirmatory of
such suspicion. We are gratified to learn
from his attending physician that all those signs
of epithelioma have passed away, that the ulcer
ated surfaces have healed and the adjoining
tissues have regained their natural suppleness.
But two weeks later DR.. Shrady took all this
back and said that the sensational stories
about cancer were true, writing thus in the Med
| ical Record of March Z:
1T is matter of deep regret that the grave
suspicious entertained of the serious nature of
General Grants disease are confirmed by a
diagnosis Of epithelioma of the tongue and
fauces"
One of his attending physicians having thus
proclaimed that his disease cancer, of course
the public were at once alarmed as to General
Grant, and their alarm subsequently in
creased by the bulletins which were issued from
his sick chamber every few hours Soon
after the publication of the last ticle
from which we have quoted, a consulta-
ton was held with view to discussing
1.-THE e4pediency of a radical surgical operation
for the removal of the growth" as described by
DR.. Shrady in the Medical Record of March 81;
but ''in the best interests of the distinguished
patient the surgeons did not feel inclined to
recommend the procedure"
There have, indeed, been no sensational
| stories" in regard to General Grants case
which have not come from his attending ply
sicians. They have represented his dis
ease as hopeless, and several times have
summoned his family to his side in the middle
of the night. fearing that his last hour had come
Both in the Grant household and throughout
the Union everybody has been warned that he
had only weeks, days, even hours to live and
the warnings have come from the physicians
who themselves have given currency to what
Dr. Shrady now calls sensational reports, !"
meaning by the words, we suppose, exaggerated
reports as to the immediate danger of the pa
tient
But all the people will rejoice oyer General
Grants remarkable Improvement and the re-
vived hOpefulness of his family, and trust that
the favorable indications which are so significant
will continue and go far that the diagnosis of
his disease by his attending physicians will
prove to have been wrong. At any rate. there
is universal relief because of his present freedom
from pain and all Immediately dangerous symp-
toms, and his own better spirits and increasing
strength, even if the gain shall prove to be only
temporary.