Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1881 — A Correct and .Carly Diagnosis of the President’s Wound. [ARTICLE]

A Correct and .Carly Diagnosis of the President’s Wound.

’ The following diagnosis of the President’s wound was made to a reporter of the Indianapolis Sentinel by Dr. W. S Haymond, of that city, (a former M. C. from this District) on the sixth day after the shooting and published in that paper on the 9tb day of July, 1881: “I am inclined to believe that the ball in striking the rib was deflected from its course, passing backward, possibly grazing the liver or passing through a small portion of it, as the direction was toward the spinal column. I take the view that the tingling is an indication that the ball was deflected toward the vertebra and striking it at some point. The nerv ous sensation in the feet might have been sympathetic, but as it came on so quickly and so strong, the most probable explanation is that the vertebra was shocked. There is danger of suppuration, and the ball may be encysted and remain a long time in the system and cause great trouble after long years.” The above is the first or among the first published opinions that have proved to be correct on the main point by the revelations of the autopsy. Dr. Haymond has persistently maintained from the start that the bullet hit the spine and missed the liver, going behind that organ. The autopsy revealed the fact that the ball not only hit the spine but passed through the anterior part of the first lumbar vertebra, and that the supposed track of the ball down into the right illiac fossa, according to the diagnosis of the attending surgeons, was only a pus track communicating with the large pus cavity between the spine and liver. After the discovery of the pus track leading downward toward the right groin, the surgeons abandoned .heir former opinion in regard to injury of the liver, but misled by the pus passage unanimous ly maintained that the bullet did not hit the spine.