Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1881 — Official Report of the Autopsy. [ARTICLE]

Official Report of the Autopsy.

The October number of the American Journal of Medical Science contains the official report of the autopsy of President Garfield. This report is by the surgeons in charge, and is quite full and comprehensive. The appearance of the body before the autopsy is told, the manner in which the autopsy was made is detailed, and all the pus cavities, ulcerations, fractures, etc., are described at full length. It appears, as heretofore stated by the physicians, that the ball, after fracturing the right eleventh rib three and a half inches to the right of the vertebral spine, went obliquely forward, passing through tho body of the first lumbar vertebra, and lodging in the adipose connective tissue immediately below the lower border of the pancreas, and about two inches and a half to the left of the spinal column. Here, the doctors again declare, the ball was completely encysted. The track of tile ball between the point at which it had fractured the rib and the point where it had entered the vertebra was considerably dilated, and pus from it burrowed downward through the adipose tissue behind the right kidney, and thence found its way between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, making a channel which extended almost to the groin. Tho doctors again declare that the immediate cause of was secondary hemorrhage, which proceeded from a rent nearly four-tenths of an inch Jong m the main trunk of the splenic artery. The doctors declare that this rent must have been made several days before the death of the patient. The physicians also describe the condition of the vital organs, which were more or less diseased. This last official statement of President Garfield’s physicians further proves how false were the official bulletins and how completely the physicians were at fault as to the location of the ball and the direction which it took after entering. It is really surprising that Gen. Garfield lived so long as he did, considering the multitude of ulcerations, pus cavities, etc., which the fatal bullet had generated. “There are Christian families,” says the examining committee of the Boston Public Library, in its last annual report, “in which the Old Testament is a forbidden book to the young.” Neveb interrupt any conversation with a hack ing Cough; it creates a bad impression. Better invest a quarter of a dollar in a bottle of Dr. Bull’s Cough Syrup and cure it