Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-11-29
WHAT KILLED GEN. RUSK.

Certificates Filed by the Attendin~ Ply
sicians Say lie Died at Heart Failure"
V1RooUA, Wis, Nov. 25.-The world
will never know the direct cause of the
death of Gen. J. NJ. Rusk. The certif-
cate that the law requires an attending
physician to file in case of the death of
man by accident or from disease has
been lodged with the proper official,
but the statement that it makes is blind
and unsatisfactory, giving no informa
ton beyond the fact that the heart
ceased to beat and death came there
with. The technical term used is heart
failure-a term that means nothing and
reveals nothing.
The case of Gen. Rusk has been given
an air of mystery by the physicians.
Little was said of his illness, no public
statement of the conditions necessitat-
ing the operation performed on him or
the character of the operation was
given to the public; and when death
came at a moment when the public, the
friends of the sick man and even the
sufferer himself had been led to believe
that q fatal termination of the illness
was more than improbable and that
complete recovery was in sight, the
physicians add to the mystery by giving
the cause Of death, shocking III its sud-
denness, as failure of the heart. The
patient was man of national promi-
nence, foremost of all in the common
wealth. and one from whose sick bed
every word touching his case was eager
ly looked for by thousands; yet the
facts touching the operation and the
causes that led to the change in his con-
dition from hope for life to pre- parations
for the tomb, are apparently shrowded
in mystery.
Physicians declare that there is moth
ing necessarily dangerous in an opera
ton for abscess of the PROSTATE gland
or liberation of the bladder, providing
proper antisceptics were used; and that
such an operation would not be likely
to produce commissions, in which Gen.
Rusk died. In the case of Gen. Rusk
the temperature and pulse became
normal and were SO on the Monday
when ali were hopeful of the recovery
of the sick man-symptoms exceeding
ly favorable. Uramic poison, if the
Kidneys were diseased, might have
caused commissions, or perhaps, accord
ing to the statement Of physicians,
have caused the rupture of an artery
in the brain. AS to causing heart fail
ure, the word is misnOmer and means
nothing.
Gen. Rusk suffered from liberation of
the kidneys, the trouble having been
of long standing and having resulted in
the formation of small pus sack near
the PROSTATE gland, which WAS enlarged.
The operation performed ten days be-
fore the death Of the patient consisted
of making an incision from the annis to
the bladder. In this incision a small
tube was inserted, intended to drain the
bladder and the pus sack. Physicians
say there was nothing in this operation
necessarily dangerous with proper
treatment; and there is no evidence
that Gen. Rusk did not receive the best
of medical attention and nursing. But
at a moment when his recovery seemed
more than probable the patient was at
tackled with commissions and died in
few minutes.
The physicians who attended Gen.
Rusk in his last illness were anxious to
conduct post norton on the body of
the General; but the family objected
and it was not done. The cause Of the
Generals death was therefore given as
heart failure, and although in many
cities a certificate ascribing failure of
the heart to perform it's functions is not
accepted, in this place the peculiar
stated cause of death was not ques-
toned. With the evidence at hand
physicians are inclined to the opinion
that death was due to eureamic poison.