The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-12
THE PLIGHT or GARFIELD.
Surgeons Unable to Find the Fatal
Bullet. as in MekinIey's Case.


Washington, DIG. Sept. S.-The at
ley, and above all the failure of the
surgeons to locate the second bullet,
turns the thoughts of every one to the
plight of President Garfield when he
lay for eleven weeks and more suffer-
ing from the effects of Guiteau's bullet,
the whereabouts of which the surgeons
failed to discover until the knife laid
bare its course at the autopsy.
General Garfield was shot at $3.50
o'clock in the morning of Saturday,
July 2, 1854. in the ladies' waiting
room of the Baltimore and Potomac
Railroad 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
kidney. The surgeons who were hastir
ly summoned probed for the bullet
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 Ito much, save for the pain II
caused - ..-. ~
Garfield. Maintained, Courage
Attempts to find the bullet failed but
there We're no signs at once of serious
internal hemorrhage and there was
little external bleeding Both of these
symptoms developed later in the aft
ernoon with vomiting. and at. $50
O'Clock the physicians said that the
patient could not recover. A former
| physician of Gen. Gartleld's said that
the President had very few chances.
The President maintained his courage,
kept a clear head and continued cheer
full 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 infiamrna-
ton had set in during the evening, and
at 8 o'clock Vice President Arthur was
awaiting a, summons ,tos 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, feets' It was due
| to the injury of the nerves supplying
the extremities. One New York sur
geon said after the Presidents death
that these pains he complained OF
showed that there was trouble in the
sciatic. muscle region and, that this in
| dication should have led the surgeons
to make an incision there which would
have let out the pts which afterward
caused SO. much trouble, Att O'Clock on
| Sunday afternoon; Cen Garfield said
he felt better than at any time since
he was shot. He had then a pulse of
10, temperature 100 and respiration "a.
Bullet Penetrated the Liver.
From then until the autopsy disclos-
ed their error the surgeons spoke of
the Presidents wound as having pene-
| trated the liver The great danger in
| President Garf1eld's case was acknowl-
| edged to be, as in the case of Presl-
dent Mckinley now, in perltonltls,
| which it was said then, was almost all
ways fatal. On the first evening bran
dy and cracked ice helped Gen. Car
field. TO rally. But presently he could
not retain that On the second evening
1 champagne and cracked ice aided him
5Then 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
day as could be expected, and on Wed
nesday there was the same waiting for
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
it, as they did not know the course of
the bullet. They were all ready for
instant operation should it develop, as.
I if it did. there must be instant opera
ton or death would be certain. The
"a
but suddenly the blood might come
into contact with the putrid matter
sloughins from he wound, and be turn
ed to gall, and then the patient would
die. The operating instruments were
kept at hand. and THE surgeon stood
guard.
Lost All Desire to Talk.
The newspapers were printing extra
editions almost hourly and the physi-
clans were issuing frequent bulletins,
| but it was well understood--the doc
tors even saying so--that the bulletins
gave little real information They
merely recorded the pulse, temper
ature and respiration, and left the pub
lie to make its own deductions. No
| diagnosis was made public. From the
rise of the surgical fever, on July g. the
variations of the pulse to July s were
from 9s. to 126; of the temperature
from 1873 to 1913, ana OF the reSpir-
ration from 10 to o.
Not until Friday was pus-which the
physicians said showed that the wound
was healing--seen. Ten days after the
shooting the patients temperature
reached the highest point--102. S. The
| doctors all this time believed that
| the bullet had passed between
| the eleventh and twelfth ribs,
through the liver, and to the abb
| dominal cavity, where they said it had
| lodged in the anterior wall Of the at
| domen, from which they, expected TO be
| able to remove it readily, in due time,
| without danger.
| 1t was only learned by the public on
| July IS that the President had ''circum-
scribed peritonitis,' and that he had
| had it since the second day Of his III
ness. This circumscribed neritonitis
was defined by tenderness in the alb
donlen. and ii was believed by the sur
geons that this located the bullet. They
! thought that the tenderness due to the
| peritonftis marked where the bullet had
| found Judgment, but 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