Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-13
FREEDOMS GRAND LEADER
Centennial Anniversary of the Death ol
George Washington,
HOW THE OCCASION WILL Be- OBSERv D
Instructive Review of the Medical
Treatment which Washington Re-
cciVcd-Mnrkcd Contrast with
Like Treatment Nowadays.

Like Ircutment Nowadays
Tomorrow, December IA, is the centennial
Of the death Of George Washington, COM
mander OF the revolutionary army and first
president Of the United states. The an
niyersary is to be observed by appropriate
exercises in the scho Is Of the land ana by
the public ceremonies at Mount Vernon
Alexandria and Washington. 1t is expected
that Alexandria will be the. center of the
most interesting observances for when
the last rites were celebrated, Alexandria
volunteers made up the military cortege;
Alexandria artilersts fired the parting sa-
lutte; Alexandria Free Masons dropped the
acacia in his grave; and the only official body
of mourners at his funeral was the mayor
and common council of Alexandria"
Onicial memorial services will be held at
Mount Vernon, under the auspices of the
Masonic fraternity. Leading Masons from
every state in the union, along with many
of the more prominent members of the craft
from Canada, Mexico, Central and South
America, ae we'll as from many foreign
countries, will join at the tomb of Washing
ton to do honor to him as the greatest Of
American citizens, the most eminent OF
American Masons,
President Mckinley, along with the mem
bers of the cabinet, both houses of congress,
the judges of the supreme court and the
members of the foreign legations resident
in Washington will join in the exercises.
The fact that Washington passed from ro-
bust health to eternity in four days, death
resulting from the effects Of cold, has fire.
quently raised the question whether the
,,,J I,nr
one. Discussing this question a writer in
the Washington Post says: 1t is not un-
likely that Washington. who died OF diph
liberia when he was Go years old, might under
another treatment have survived many
years; for he was strong man at the time
of his death and as he himself said on his
deathbed as if in excuse: Il have been
an unconscionable time dying" 1t may be
that everything was done which could possi-
bly, have been done to save him, but many
physicians are now convinced that with the
present capacity of curative medicine, Wash
ington could have been safely brought
through the crisis of his disease and would
in all probability, have lived to be at least
so years old, thus surviving the admnistra-
tions Of Adams and jefferson. and being
only an octogenarian at the opening of the
second war with Great Bri.an, Had he
lived to be 90, as did many of his comrades
of the revolution, he would have seen the
administrations Of Madison, Monroe and
Quincy Adams completed, and Andrew jack
son in the presidential chair
Treatment of Washington.
The medical treatment of Washington is
thus set out by his physicians, Drs Craik
and Dick, in letter to an Alexandria paper:
Some time in the night of Friday, the 18th
instant, having been exposed to a rain on the
preceding day. General Washington was at
tackled with an inflammatory affection of the
upper part Of the windppe, called, in the
technical language, cynanche tracheals. The
disease commenced with a violet ague, ac
companied with some pain in the upper and
fore part of the throat, a sense of structure
in the same part cough, and difficult
rather than painful deglutiton which were
soon succeeded by fever and quick, labor
ious respiration. The necessity of bloodet-
ting suggesting itself to the general he pro-
cured a bleeder from the neighborhood. He
would not by any means be prevailed upon
to send for the attending physician till the
following morning, who arrived at Mount
Vernon about IL o'clock on Saturday. Dis
covering the case to be highly alarming, and
toTeseeing the fatal tendency of the disease.
two consulting physicians were Immediately
sent for, who arrived, one at half after and
the other at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In
The interim were employed two copious
bleedings blister was applied to the part
affected two moderate doses Of calomel were
given succeeded by repeated doses of emetic
tartar, amounting in all to five or six grains,
with no other effect than copious discharge
from the bowels. The powers of life seemed
manifestly yielding to the force of the dis
order Blisters were applied to the ex-
tremitles, together with a cataplasm Of bran
and vinegar to the throat. Speaking, which
was painful from the beginning, now became
almost impracticable, respiration grew more
and more contracted and imperfect, till half
after II on Saturday night when he died
without a struggle.
knew That He Would Die.
He was fully impressed at the beginning
of his complaint, as well as through every
succeeding stage of it, that its conclusion
would be mortal; submitting to the several
eXertons made for his recovery rather as a
duty than from any expectation of their eff
ficacy. He considered the operations of death
upon his system as coeval with the disease,
and several hours before his decease, after
repeated efforts to be understood, succeeded
in expressing a desire that he might be per-
mitted to die without interruption.
During the short period of his illness he
economized his time in the arrangement OF
such few concerns as required his attention
with the utmost serenity, and anticipated
his approaching dissolution with every
demonstration of that equanmity for who
his whole life had been so uniformly and
sngularly conspicuous"
In March, 1860, Dr. James Jackson OF Bos-
ton, one of the most eminent physicians
of the world, reviewed the adverse crit cisms
which had been made upon the treatment
OF Washington's disease by his physlcians
This defense has been summarized as fol-
lows:
DIR. Jackson says:
washington was, in fact, strangulated by
the closure of the windpipe as much as il
a tight cord had been twisted around his
neck. What was this disease which cut
CTR In bnr 81 ,