Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-09-10

'',''5 > 'pot toNPe' %hC ottVhpt
to assassinate President Mckinley,
and the failure of the surgeons to pos
itively locate the second bullet, turns
the thoughts of every one to the plight
Of President Garfield when he lay for
IL weeks and more suffering from the
effects of Guiteau's bullet, the where
abouts of which the surgeons failed
to discover until the knife laid bare
its course at the autopsy.
General Garfield was shot at $50
o'clock in the morning of Saturday,
July 2, 1881, in the ladies' waiting
room of the Baltimore Il Potomac rail-
road in Washington, while he was
walking arm-in-arm with James G.
Blaine. He was taken first to a pri-
vate room in the station and thence
removed to the White House. He
had been shot twice, first in the right
arm, just below the shoulder, and the
second and fatal time In the back,
just above the right hip and near the
kidneys. The surgeons who were
hastily summoned probed for the bull
let without success, but announced
that its course had been downward
and forward into the groin and that
the wound was serious but not likely
to be fatal. The wound in the arm
did not amount to much save for the
pain it caused.
Attempts to find the bullet failed,
but there were no signs at once of seri.
Gus internal hemorrhage and there was
little external bleeding. Both of these
symptoms developed later in the after
noon, with vomiting, and at 8 80 c :, ok
the physicians said that the patient
could not recover. A former. physician
of General Garfield's said that the
President had very few chances. The
President maintained his courage, kept
clear head and continued cheerful
through Sunday, but he asked the doc
tors to tell him if he was going to
die. Hopes of the medical men rose
on Sunday, but ON Sunday at midnight
they had vanished. Serious inflamma-
tion had set in during the evening and
at 8 o'clock Vice President Arthur was
awaiting a summons to the White
House to take the oath of Office.
By noon of Monday the doctors had
relieved the pain, which till then had
been constant and which the patient
had complained of all the time as be-
ing in his legs and feet. 1t was
due to the injury of the
nerves supplying the extremities. One
New York surgeon said after the
Presidents death that these pains he
complained Of showed that there was
trouble in the sciatic muscle region
and that this indication should have
led the surgeons to make an incision
there which would have let out the
pus which afterward caused so much
trouble. At 2 o'clock on Sunday af-
ternoon, General Garfield said he felt
better than at any time since he was
shot. He had then pulse Of 10,
temperature 100 and respiration "a.
From then until the autopsy disclosed
their error, the surgeons spoke of the
Presidents wound as having pene-
trated the liver. The great danger in
President Garfield's case was ack-
nowledged to be, as In the case of
President Mckinley now, in peritoni-
tbs, which, it was said then, was al
most always fatal. On the first even
ing brandy and cracked ice helped Cen
eral Garfield to rally. But presently
he could not retain that. On the sec
ond evening champaign and cracked
ice aided him. Then his diet fell to
milk and lime water, with. later, some
chicken broth and rum of old vintage.
On the Tuesday following the shoot
ing the patient had as comfortable a
day as could be expected, and on