EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 31, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without approval House bill No. 3363, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Jennette Dow."
The husband of the claimant enlisted August 7, 1862; received a gunshot
wound in his left knee in September, 1863, and was mustered out with his
company June 10, 1865. He was pensioned for his wound in 1878 at the
rate of $4 per month, dating from the time of his discharge, which
amount was increased to $8 per month from June 4, 1880. The pensioned
soldier died December 17, 1882, and in 1883 his widow, the claimant,
filed an application for pension, alleging that her husband's death
resulted from his wound. Her claim was rejected in 1885 upon the ground
that death was not caused by the wound.
The physician who was present at the time of the death certifies that
the same resulted from apoplexy in twelve hours after the deceased was
attacked.
It also appears from the statement of this physician that the deceased
was employed for years after his discharge from the Army as a railroad
conductor, and that at the time of his death he had with difficulty
reached his home. He then describes as following the attack the usual
manifestations of apoplexy, and adds that he regards the case as one of
"hemiplegia, the outgrowth primarily of nerve injury, aggravated by the
life's calling, and eventuating in apoplexy as stated."
Evidence is filed in the Pension Bureau showing that after his discharge
he was more or less troubled with his wound, though one witness
testifies that he railroaded with him for fifteen years after his
injury. I find no medical testimony referred to which with any
distinctness charges death to the wound, and it would be hardly credible
if such evidence was found.
I am sure that in no case except in an application for pension would an
attempt be made in the circumstances here developed to attribute death
from apoplexy to a wound in the knee received nineteen years before the
apoplectic attack.