Evening journal., 1901-09-11

L.
and respiration and left the public tt
make its own deductions. No diagnosi:
was made public. From the rise of tn,
surgical fever on July 3, the var;a.
tions OF the pulse to July 6 were from
SO to 126, of the temperature from 81!
TO 1919, and Of the respiration from 1!
L. a. General Garfield was told thai
the bullet had perforated his dia-
phragm, and on that account he mus
not talk He liked to converse and The
doctors wanted 10 keep him very quiet
They got him to the point where ht
would even ask mntely for water by
putting his hand to his lips. Later he
lost all desire to talk.
Not until Friday was pus-which the
physicians said showed that the
wound was healing-seen. Ten days
after the shooting the patients temper
ature reached the highest point-1O2. S.
The doctors all this time believed that
the bullet had passed between the elev
enth and twelfth ribs, through the
iver, and to the abdominal cavity.
where they said it had lodged in the
interior wall Of the abdomen. from
which they expected to be able to re-
move it readily, in due time without
ianger.
II was only learned by the public on
July l3 that the President had "cir-
'umscribed peritonitis," and that he
rad had it since the second day of his
Illness. This circumscribed peritonitis
vas defined by a tenderness in the alb
iomen and It was believed by the sur
cons that this located the bullet They
hought that the tenderness due to the
'eritonitis marked where the bullet
lad found lodgment, but a little lump
here which they thought was the bull
ct they concluded after the autopsy
must have been hard pus at the end OF
/ canal which it had bored for itself
rom a point near the beginning of the
lullet wound. The pus worked for
yard, while the bullet had gone side
wise across the back; but it was
lany weary weeks before this was
earned, and the sufferer from abund-
,nthealth in midsummer, passed through
Il the stages to the knife of the post
uortem examiner just before the au-
umnal equinox.
Improvement and relapse continued
through August, and on September 6
he President was removed from the
White House to Elberon, his case then
eing really hopeless Three thousand
We hundred feet of track were laii
rom the railroad station at Elberon
, the Francklyn cottage to which the
resident was taken, so that the train
luld run practically to the door. His
)ndition fiuctuated from that time un-
] his death at 1895 p m. on Septtm-
'er 49, The autopsy was made the
ext day, the knife being used by Dr
}. S. Lamb. of the Medical Musuem
Washington in the presence Of the
ther surgeons. The official announce
tent of its results said:
1T was found that the ball. after
racturing the tight eleventh rib, had
assed through the spinal column ia
rOnt of the spinal canal. fracturing
he body of the first lumbar vertebra,
riving a number of small fragments
Z bone into the adjacent soft parts
nd lodging below the pancreas, about
vo inches and a half to the left Of tho
zine and behind the peritoneum,
here it had become encysted. The
IMMEDIATE cause Of death was second
y hemorrhage from one of the mesen-
ric arteries adjoining the track IF
Re ball, the blood rupturing the peri
'neum and nearly a pint escaping into
Ne abdominal cavity. An abb
ness cavity, six inches by four in di-
'ensions. was found in the vicinity
the gall bladder between the liver
nd the transverse colon, which were
'rongly adherent It did not involve
Ae substance of the liver and no COM
'unication was found between It and
Se wound. a long suppurating chan
al extended from the external wound
atween the loin muscles and the right
'dney almost TO the groin. This
hannel, now known to be due to the
throwing Of pus from the wound.
-as supposed during life to be the
rack Of the ball"