Semi-weekly Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1897-1901, 1901-09-17
The Medical Aspect of the Case.

The MeuIcal ASpcCt Ol the C"sc'
As was to be expected, there is a
fight of doctors over the Presidents
case. Somehow the gentlemen of this
profession seem seldom able to get
| along together over any case. Is IL
because their work is necessarily SO
much guess work? 1t is conceded
now In the light Of the autopsy that
the presidents case was hopeless from
the first, and in view of the fact
that the state Of the pulse was so
ominous all along and so s%ignigcant
of some unseen trouble, the other
doctors unite in blaming McBurney,
perhaps the most eminent surgeon in
the country, for the optimistic reports
given out; he thought the shock to
the system explained the high pulse.
But they disagree as to whether the
bullet penetrated the pancreas: some
say it. did and that the pancreatic
fluid eau sed the gangrene, while the
Others are sure this organ was not
touched at all. There is abundant
criticism also of their failure to ma
out. in the operation lust after the
shooting, that the kidney had been
torn: but it is only fair to
remember that their anxiety
then was not to unnecessarily hazard the
patiept's life by doing too much, and see
ing the direction the bullet took
through the stomach. and taking every
precaution possible against troublethere
thought it safer to stop. They of course
knew the possibility of queer directions
being taken by a bullet after it gets IN
side the body, as in the case of James
Fisk Jr, who was shot through the
abdoman and the bullet found down in
the thigh. The suspicion that the
bullet was poisoned, which only one OF
the doctors seems to hold, cannot be
justified or disproved until after a care
full and close scientific inquiry. But
even that charge is not necessary 10
account for the fatal ending. ASIDE
.rom the questions about the pancreas
and kidney, it is claimed that there IS
not a case on record CT a man over 40
wears old recovering after a shot through
the stomach, because after this age the
flesh is too old, will not beal properly
and easily falls prey to gangrene. Gun
shot wounds always kill the tissue with
in a certain area perhaps, three.eighth's
of an inch on every side Of their course.
In the young and i'll the exceptionally
vigorous the necrossed tissue sloughs
away or is otherwise removed by
natures cunning methods, and repair
is coincidept with this process. But IN
men advanced 10 years this is otherwise.
The reason for suspecting poison from
the bullet or the pancreas in this case is
the fact that he area OF dead tissue was
so much larger, an inch in circumfer-
ence, as the bulletin tells.
When the Presidents case took its
turn for the worse, it was assumed, n
even so announced by the doctors on
the ground, that it was due to failure
to dispose of the food that had been
naturally administered. If tins had
been the case, the alarm might well
have been exaggerated, as the Reform
er pointed out Friday, because TINS I'm
testinal t~oxmania,' as 1t is called, due
to prutrefsctive changes in the intos-
tine, is rarely dangerous, n even IN
the Presidents weakened condition
there was fair ground for hope that the
system would take care of the trouble.
At any rate the best that was posi-
bic for the highest surgical and medical
skill to do for him was done, and 1t Is
most unseemly that there should be
ouarreling now over a result that could
n OF possibly have been averte5.