Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1885 — Another view of the Makeever Post-mortem. [ARTICLE]

Another view of the Makeever Post-mortem.

Editor Republican In the issue of your paper for Sept. 24th, is an article in reference of the death of Mr. Madison Makeover, in which your reporter, has by carelessness or design, included several statements entirely at variance from the facts. After stating the “immediate cause of Meath to be “cancer of the lower end of <ue stomach,” you say that his sickness (meaning the said cancer) has .continued since last fall. Now the fact,is, that the first time any advice •was sought from any physician in Rensselaer, was on the 24th of March, 1885, at which time he complained only of slight indigestion, and much pain and soreness in the right shoulder and right side of .chest, which he ascribed to a violent fall. There was then dulness even to flatness over nearly the .entire right lung, tenderness over the liver and enlargement of that organ. After stating that all the physicians of Rensselaer • were present at the postmortem, and that the cause of death was ton nd to be a cancer of the py lonic .end of the stomach, you go on to say that “the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen and small intestiness were healthy. There was byperstatic congestion of a part of each lung, which is simply a settling of the blood in the lower part of the lungs after death. There was a mottled appearance of one lung caused by .a deposit of black«pigmant or coloring matter in the lungs, but that c >uld not be considered a factor in the cause of death. Otherwise the lungs were healthy in appearance and in fact.” I'hc evident intention of the foregoing was to convey the impression that “all the physicians of Rensselaer” were of the opinion that all other organs of the body were perfectly healthy, except .the small portion of the stomach forming the pyloric orifice. Now the fact is that a parge majority _of the physicians of Rensselaer, found the liver very strongly adherent to the abdominal walj, as a result of previous inflamation, the fatty and cellular tissue deeply stained of a golden line from absorption of bile pigment, and the right lung when cut into, filled, with fluid which was not merely the result of hypostaric (not “byperstatic”) occurring af.er death. This ilnid was not blood, but serum, and had been there months before death«. Besides this, a portion of the lungs were in the condition known as grey hepatijsatioh, which could easily have" been showji, had a portion .been placed- in waler.

LOOKER-ON.