The Washington times., 1901-09-09
AKIN TO GARFIELD'S CASE
In That Instance, Too. Surgeons
Could Not Find Second Bullet.
His Wound More SERIOUS Than Nc
Kinfcy's. and in Amy Event n Nor
tai Gne-Nistal<es Made in ENami-
nations, II. shown h., the Autopsy.

| nations. H. shown by the Autopsy.
The dastardly attempt to assassinate
| President Mckinley, and above all the
| failure of the surgeons to locate the sec
ond bullet. has turned the thoughts oil
| everyone to the plight of President Gar
| field when he lay for more than eleven
weeks suffering from the effects of Gul-
| teaus bullet. In that case the surgeons
| failed to discover the whereabouts OF the
fatal piece of lead until the distinguished
| patient's life had fiickered out and the
autopsy was made.
President Garfield was shot at $3.50
| o'clock on the morning of Saturday, July
g 1881, in the ladies waiting room of the
| Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, while
he was walking arm in arm with James
| G.. Blaine He was at the time about 10
take a train to meet Mrs. Garfield in Jer-
sey City, whence, with some members of
his Cabinet. he was to make trip into
New England. He was taken to an office
room on the second floor of 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 kidney.
probed for the bullet without success, but
announced that its course had been down
| ward 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. The President retained con-
seriousness, and when he reached the
White House dictated telegram to Mrs.
| Garfield, who had not yet started from
| Elberon, n. J.
| President Garfield's recovery from the
| shock of the wounds was very gradual.
| Later attempts to find the bullet failed,
| but there were no signs at once of serious
| internal hemorrhage and there was little
| external bleeding Both of these symp-
| toms developed later in the afternoon.
with vomiting, and at $3.50 o'clock the ply
sicians said that the patient could not re-
cover A former physician of General
Garfield said that the President had
very few chances. The President main
tanned his courage, kept clear head,
and continued cheerful through Sunday,
but he asked the doctors 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 in
fammation had set in during the evening
| and at 9 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 re-
lieved the pain, which till then had been
constant and of which the patient had
complained all the time as being in his
legs and feet 1t was due to the injury of
the nerves supplying the extremities. One
New York surgeon said after the Presi-
Il hat he
showed that there was trouble in the
sciatic muscle region and that this indica-
ton should have led the surgeons to make
an incision there which would have let
out the pus which afterward caused so
much trouble. At o'clock on Sunday
afternoon 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. The examinations
up to that time, 1t was announced, had
only demonstrated tnat the bullet was in
the neighborhood of the liver.
From then until the autopsy disclosed
their error the surgeons spoke of the
Presidents S wound as having penetrated
the liver and statistics were evoked for
an illustration of the CHANCES of life with
such a wound. 1t was found that of 160
or 40 cases of similar liver wounds in the
civil war twenty-three were treated sue
cessfulIy.
The great danger in President Garfield's
case was acknowledged to be. as in the
case of President Mckinley, now, in peri
tonitis, which it was said then was almost
always fatal. On the first evening bran
dy and cracked ice helped General Gar
field to rally. But presently he could not
retain that. On the second evening cham
nd cd
his diet fell to milk and lime water, with,
later, some chicken broth and rum of old
vintage.
On the Tuesday following the shooting
the patient had as comfortable a day as
could be expected. and on Wednesday
there was the same waiting for develop
ments. which it was hoped might be
good, but feared would be bad. All that
the doctors could do was to try to keep
the patients strength up. They feared
blood poisoning all the time, but could do
nothing to prevent 1t, as they did not
know the course of the bullet. Should It
develop they were al! ready for instant
operation, which would be imperatively
necessary OF death would be certain.
lhe patient might appear to be getting
well, but suddenly the blood might come
into contact with the putrid matter
sloughing from the wound and be turned
to gan, and then the patient would die.
The operating instruments were kept to
The newspapers were printing extra
editions almost hourly ard the physicians
were issuing frequent bulletins. but 1t was
well understood-the doctors even saying
so-,hat the bulletins gave little real in
formation. They merely recorded the
pulse, temperature. and RESPIRATION and
left the public TO make its own deduc-
tions. No diagnosis was made public
From the rise of the surgical fever on
July 3, the variations of the pulse to July
g. were from 81 to l25, of the temperature
frgar "a O ~ I.
from - to "a. General Garfield was told
that the bullet had perforated his dia-
phragm and on that account he must not
talk. He liked to converse and the doc
tors wanted TO keep him very quiet. They
got him to the point where he would even
ask mutely 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 temperature reach
ed the highest point-l0-S. The doctors
all this time believed that the bullet had
passed between the eleventh and twelfth
ribs, through the liver. and to the abdon-
inal cavity, where they said it had lodged
in the anterior wall of the abdomen, from
which they expected to be able to remove
it readily, in due time. without danger
Not until July l3 was it learned by the
public that the President had ''circum-
scribed peritonitis." and that he had had
1t since the second day of his illness. This
circumscribed peritonitis was defined by
a tenderness in the abdomen and il was
believed by the surgeons that this located
the bullet.
They thought that the tenderness due
to the peritonitis marked where the bull
let had found lodgment but a little lump
there, which they thought was the bullet
they concluded after the autopsy must
have been hard pus at the end of canal
which it had bored for itself from a point
near the beginning Of the bullet wound
The pus worked forward. while the bull
let had gone sidewise across the back;
but ii was many weary weeks before this
was learned. and the snffe ferer. from ahun-