The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-12-17
The DOCTORS DISAGREED
TRACHEOTOMY WAS THEN IN
IT'S INFANCY.
TWO or The physical sFEARED ToRlSK
Dr.. Dick, Youngest Of the Three, Wished it
Done, But He Was 0veruIed. Washing
ton Died of Straoguation Caus-
ed by duIt of Group.
ed by duIt Of Group,
Baltimore Sum-


That George Washington's life might
have been at least prolonged and at any
rate his death made less painful was the
opinion expressed last night in a discus
logical Society of Maryland at the rooms
of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty,
4S7 North Eutaw street. A number of
prominent throat specialists took part in
the discussion.
The discussion was begun with his
torical address by Mr.. Charles Weathers
Bump, who gave an account of the last
illness of Washington and of the treat
ment which was accorded him by the
three physicians-Drs. James Craik,
Elisha G. Dick and Gustavus Rieaati
Brown. The account was based upon
two statements by the physicians recently
found by Mr.. Bump in the files of rare
old newspapers and periodicals. One was
a history of the case, signed by Drs.
Craik and Dick, and printed in the Balti-
more Federal Gazette for December %
1899, II days after Washington's death
The other was an article by DR.. Dick,
written in 1908 for the Philadelphia Med
ical and Physical Journal a short-lived
periodical, now rarely found. A private
letter of one Of the three physicians was
also quoted.
THE FATAL ILLNESS.
Washington is generally supposed to
have died from what is now known to
medical men as acute oedematous laryn-
gifts. but what was then classified as
quiDsy or Group Of adults. He caught a
cold while riding over his estate in bad
weather OF Thursday, December II, 1893
and on the following day complained of
hoarseness. Before dawn on Saturday
he aroused Mrs. Washington and said
that he was III, but would not let her
summon doctor until day broke. The
physician first sent for was DIR. Craik.
who had been Washington's intimate
friend for nearly half a century. When
he came. he saw that the ex-Presdent
was in great pain, and he asked that DIR.
Dick be summoned from Alexandria and
DR. Brown from Port Tobacco.
In spite of their efforts to alleviate the
sick man, he died about II O'clock that
Saturday night. within 20 hours after he
had told hts wife that he was ILL., His
death was directly due to strangulation.
caused by the swelling of his larynx until
it closed and prevented his breathing.
FIVE POUNDS OF BLOOD DRAWN.
The treatment which was given Wash
ington consisted mainly of succession of
blood lettings and of the frequent admin
istration Of mercury in the form Of Gallo
mel and of tartar enetic. From the ply
s:cians' statements it has been computed,
Mr.. Bump stated, that at least five
pounds of blood were drawn in II hours,
once by am overseer of the estate at
Washington's direction and three times
by the physicians after their arrival, the
last bleeding taking no less than two
pounds from him. 1t is stated that after
this last bleeding Washington, with much
pain and difficulty, eontrived to have
them understand that he wished to die
without further interruption"
Modern biographers have almost uni
fornly condemned the treatment of the
physicians as little short of murder
and Mr.. Bump showed that even with the
scanty medical knowledge of a HUNDRED
years ago the methods We're violently as
sailed in this country and Europe. le
quoted from attacks made BY William
Goblet, noted pamphleteer and politi-
cal writer, by a physician of Savannah
and another OF London, all within four
months of Washington's death.
WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE.
.'Of still more Importance, he said, is
the knowledge which is disclosed in DR..