The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-15
Marine Hospital Surgeon Wasdin
IS Inclined to the Opinion
That it Was.
Doctors Discuss the Autopsy Per
formed on the Body of Presi-
dent Mckinley.
siderably run down and needed rest ant
recuperation."

siderably run down and needed rest and
recuperation."
HEART WALLS THIN.
1.-The report says that the heart walls
were very thin. Was this condition pc
culiar to the president or is 1t a common
complaint? Did the use of smoking to-
bacco by the president have any impor>
tant bearing on the case?"
"A man whose heart walls are very
thin is usually one who leads sedentary
life and whose heart gets no great
amount of exercise. This organ, like and
other, requires active exercises to keep it
in proper condition. No doubt the presi-
dents heart was sufficient for him in mis-
ordinary business affairs of life when no
strain was required. When eXtraordi-
nary efforts were necessary the heart
was unable to meet them.
mo, 1 don't think the smoking habit
affected the president heart to the ex-
tent of making it figure in the result of
his case. He was not a great smoker,
and at one time we even considered the
propriety of permitting him to have a
cigar
1t has been suggested, DR.. Mann, that
the bullet which went into the president S
abdomen was poisoned and ,4rat this was
what caused death. Do you think there
is any basis for the reports? Was
asked
THE authorities and the physicians
have received number of kilograms and
letters alleging that the bullet was
poisoned" DR.. Mann replied. II don't
know whether 1t was or not. A chemi-
cal or a archaeological examination Of
the remaining bullets in the pistol will be
necessary to determine that. This con-
clusion would be very difficult to reach
for many reasons.
DEAD TISSUES.
"All the tissues through which the bull
let passed were dead. This is very re-
markable, indeed. The area of the dead
flesh in the stomach was prhaps as great
as silver dollar in circumference Dr.
Wasdin, the marine hospital expert, was
strongly inclined to the opinion that the
bullet had been poisoned
Just word in conclusion" said Dr.
Mann. Il think in justice to the other
physicians and myself something should
be said about the bulletins issued every
day. We aimed to make them as plain
as possible and to state the facts SIM
ply. They were given as hour to hour
talks of the presidents condition contain
ing no opinions, nor making any prog
nasttcattons; simply a narration of con-
ditions made with a desire to keep the
public informed from day to day of the
actual state of affairs
Another one of the physicians who
asked that his name should not be used,
said: so far as the treatment of the
case was concerned, both from surgi-
cal and a medical standpoint, it was sue
cessful. The abdominal wound was ia
tai from the start. The physicians should
feel relieved over the result of the au-
topsy because it revealed the fact that
the abdominal wound was necessarily ia
tai and that nothing that was done or
could be done would more than delay the
inevitable result. The government, the
family and the profession were fairly
represented among the physicians and
surgeons making the autopsy
Superintendent of Police Bull said to-
night regarding the poisoned bullet theory
that nothing had yet been done to investi-
gate it, but the police would begin work
on it Immediately. He said that the
cartridges had not yet been removed from
Czolgosz's pistol. 1t is still in exactly the
condition it was when it was wrenched
from the hands of the prisoner
The city chemist will probably be asked
by District Attorney Penney to make
chemical analysis, and it is also proba-
BILE that an analysis may be made by 9TH
er chemists and psychologists