The 2nd US President to die in an assassination attempt
The 20th President of the United States, James Abram Garfield, became the second president of the United States to die at the hands of an assassin. Having assumed the presidency on March 4, 1881, President Garfield was shot twice on July 2 of that year, less than four months after taking office. On September 19 of that year, 79 days after being wounded, President Garfield died.
Amanda Shaffer
A president killed by an assassin and medical care in the 1880s
A president killed by an assassin and medical care in the 1880s
Three vertebrae removed from the body of US President James Abram Garfield lie on a piece of blue satin. A red plastic probe passes through them, showing the trajectory of the bullet fired by the assassin on July 2, 1881.
The vertebrae are the centerpiece of a new exhibit marking the 125th anniversary of Garfield's assassination. The exhibit also features photographs and other images that tell the story. history shooting and its aftermath, which left [President] Garfield on his deathbed for 80 days. The exhibit, which opened at the National Museum of Health and Medicine on the grounds of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, opened on July 2 and will close 80 days later, on September 19 (the day of the assassination attempt and the day of President Garfield's death. - P.G.).
[President] Garfield was waiting [for a train] at the Baltimore and Potomac Station in Washington, intending to travel to New England (the northeastern United States. - P.G.), when assassin Charles Guiteau shot him twice.
Charles Guiteau
"The first bullet grazed Garfield's arm," said Lenore Barbian, curator of the museum's anatomical collections, "and the second hit him in the right side of his back and lodged deep inside his body."
"Nobody expected Garfield to survive the night," Dr. Barbian said.
As the exhibit clearly shows, the second bullet pierced [President] Garfield's first lumbar vertebra, passing from right to left.
The path of the bullet that became fatal
However, at the time, without modern diagnostic techniques, [President] Garfield's doctors were unable to locate the bullet. "Determining the route of infection became their primary concern," said Dr. Barbian.
At least a dozen medical examiners examined the president's wound, often with unsterilized metal instruments or their bare hands, as was common practice at the time.
Sterile technology, developed by British surgeon Joseph Lister in the mid-1860s, had not yet become widespread in the United States, although it had already been adopted in France, Germany, and other European countries. Historians agree that infection resulting from unsterile medical practices contributed to Garfield's death.
Doctors and nurses lift the president on his bed to change his linen.
The exhibition also details how the president's fluctuating health became a national concern in the summer of 1881. His doctors published daily medical reports, which were quickly distributed by telegraph and published in newspapers across the country. In response, the White House received a huge volume of letters.
"One person suggested turning the president upside down and seeing if the bullet would fall out on its own," Dr. Barbian said.
The exhibition also features an image of a metal detector developed by Alexander Graham Bell to locate bullets. It consisted of a battery and several metal coils mounted on a wooden platform and connected to an earpiece.
Jeffrey Resnick, the museum's senior curator, explained that the device was designed to create an electromagnetic field that would be disrupted by the presence of a metal object. This disruption would cause a clicking sound in the earphone.
"Electricity and magnetism were just beginning to be appreciated as ways to probe the internal structure of the body," Dr. Resnick said.
Bell's invention twice failed to pinpoint the bullet's location. Historians say this may have been because the device detected metal coils in the president's mattress, or because Bell only searched the right side of Garfield's body, where the lead physician, Dr. Willard Bliss (called "Doctor"), believed the bullet was lodged.
In early September, the president was moved from the White House to a beach cottage in Elberon, New Jersey.
Also on display is a photograph of the president on his deathbed, lying on his back, covered with a sheet, surrounded by friends and family, including his wife Lucretia and daughter Molly. [President] Garfield died in New Jersey on September 19, 1881.
Death of General James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States
The exhibition also features photographs by Drs. Daniel Lamb and Joseph Woodward, who performed the autopsy. Drs. Lamb and Woodward were associated with the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C., which later became the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
The autopsy revealed that the bullet had pierced [President] Garfield's vertebrae but had not struck the spinal cord. The bullet had not struck any vital organs, arteries, or veins, and had come to rest in the fatty tissue on the left side of the president's back, just below the pancreas.
Dr. Ira Rutkov, a professor of surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a medical historian, said, "Garfield's wound was completely non-fatal. In our time, he would have returned home in two or three days."
Besides causing sepsis (blood poisoning) by examining the wound with unsterile hands and instruments, the doctors did [President] Garfield a disservice by severely restricting his intake of solid food, believing that the bullet might have penetrated his intestines, said Dr. Rutkow, author of "James Garfield," published in the "American Presidents" series.
In mid-August, doctors insisted on feeding [President] Garfield rectally (through the anus. - P.G.), and thus he received beef broth, egg yolks, milk, whiskey and drops of opium.
"They basically starved him to death," Dr. Rutkov said, noting that the president lost more than 100 pounds (about 45 kg. - P.G.) in weight from July to September.
Garfield's assassination occurred during a period of change in American medicine. Standardization of medical practice was weak, and various schools of thought—including homeopaths and allopaths, who held opposing approaches to treatment—competed for patients.
Behind the scenes, historians say, the relationship between [President] Garfield's physicians was tense. While the chief physician, Dr. Bliss, published optimistic reports in the press, his rivals, including Dr. Silas Boynton, repeatedly leaked negative and, as it turned out, more accurate information. (Dr. Bliss was an allopath, and Dr. Boynton was a homeopath, which somewhat explains their rivalry.)
Medical journals also published scathing editorials criticizing the president's treatment methods. "You wouldn't see such arguments in medical journals today," said Dr. Rutkov.
Dr. Rutkov noted that sterile practices only became widespread in the United States in the early 1890s. X-rays, which would also be useful to the president, were discovered in the 1890s.
The Garfield exhibit is located next to the museum's permanent Civil War exhibit (1861–1865 – P.G.), which includes the bullet that killed President Abraham Lincoln and fragments of his skull, as well as bone saws, dentures, and various other Civil War artifacts. The museum also houses the spleen, brain, and most of the skeleton of Garfield's assassin, Guiteau (these artifacts are not part of the current exhibit).
Sarah Vowell, author of "Murder Vacation," which examines the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley, claims that Garfield's vertebrae were given to the jury at Guiteau's trial.
The killer's lawyers attempted to prove their client was not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense failed, and he was hanged on June 30, 1882.
Guiteau himself repeatedly criticized [President] Garfield's doctors, claiming that they killed him.
"I just shot him," Guiteau said.
The New York Times
July 25 2006 city
July 25 2006 city
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