Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1881 — The Last of Earth [ARTICLE]

The Last of Earth

OFFICIAL BULLETIN —HOW HE DIED.I Long Branch, Sept. 19.—Thel President died at 10:35 p. m, After the bulletin was issued at 5:30 this afternoon the President continued in much the same condition as during the afternoon, the pulse varying from 100 to 106, with rather increased volume. After taking nourishment, he fell into a quiet sleep. About thirty minutes before his death and while asleep his pulse rose to 120, and was somewhat more feeble. At 10 P. M. he awoke, complaining of severe pain in the region oi‘ the heart. He almost immediately became unconscious and ceased to breathe at 10:35. D. W. Bliss, D. Agnew, F. H. Hamilton. the autopsy. The post-mortem examination'vof the president’s body developed the following. “It was found that the ball, after fracturing the right eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal column in front of the spinal canal, fracturing the body of the first lumbar vetebra, driving a number of small fragments of bone into the adjacent soft parts, and lodging just below the pancreas about two inches and a half to the left of the spine and behind the peritoneum, where it had become completely encysted. The immediate cause of death was secondary hemorrhage from one of the mesenteric arteries adjoining the track of the ball, the blood rupturing the peritoneum and nearly escaping in-i to the abdominal cavity. This hemorrhage is believed to have been the cause of the severe pain in the lower part of the chest complained of just before death, An abcess cavity six inches by four in

limensions was found in the vicin- H i y of the gall bladder, between tl a . liver and transverse colen, which* were strongly enter-adherent. IF, did not involve the substance of they liver, and no communication was/ found between it and the wound.d A long suppurating channel extended from the external wound tween the loin muscles and the. right groin. This channel, nowj) known to be flue to the burrowing ~ of pus from the wound, was sup-*;' posed to have been the track of tlie ball. On examination of the chest Evidences of severe bronchitis were -■? [ . h,.fii :• i; 1, >. i.h 1 .roueiii•-, , ueumonia of the lower .if Ihe riifSr. lung, and though toa much l -.-s extent—oi the left.: i lie lungs contained no a! icons and. the heart no clots. The liver was enlarged and fatty but tree from;; abcesses, nor were any found inujy other ■ organ except the left? kidney, which contained, near.its, surface, a small abcess about one-; third of an inch in diameter.” f.