The following official bulletin was prepared by the surgeons who have
been in attendance upon the late President:
By previous Arrangement a _post-mortem_ examination of the body of
President Garfield was made this afternoon in the presence and with the
assistance of Drs. Hamilton, Agnew, Bliss, Barnes, Woodward, Reyburn,
Andrew H. Smith, of Elberon, and Acting Assistant Surgeon D.S. Lamb, of
the Army Medical Museum, of Washington. The operation was performed by
Dr. Lamb. It was found that the ball, after fracturing the right
eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal column in front of the
spinal cord, fracturing the body of the first lumbar vertebra, driving a
number of small fragments of bone into the adjacent soft parts, and
lodging below the pancreas, about 2-1/2 inches to the left of the spine
and behind the peritoneum, where it had become completely encysted.
The immediate cause of death was secondary hemorrhage from one of the
mesenteric arteries adjoining the track of the ball, the blood rupturing
the peritoneum and nearly a pint escaping into the abdominal cavity.
This hemorrhage is believed to have been the cause of the severe pain in
the lower part of the chest complained of just before death. An abscess
cavity 6 inches by 4 in dimensions was found in the vicinity of the gall
bladder, between the liver and the transverse colon, which were strongly
adherent. It did not involve the substance of the liver, and no
communication was found between it and the wound.
A long suppurating channel extended from the external wound, between the
loin muscles and the right kidney, almost to the right groin. This
channel, now known to be due to the burrowing of pus from the wound, was
supposed during life to have been the track of the ball.
On an examination of the organs of the chest evidences of severe
bronchitis were found on both sides, with broncho-pneumonia of the lower
portions of the right lung, and, though to a much less extent, of the
left. The lungs contained no abscesses and the heart no clots. The liver
was enlarged and fatty, but not from abscesses. Nor were any found in
any other organ except the left kidney, which contained near its surface
a small abscess about one-third of an inch in diameter.
In reviewing the history of the case in connection with the autopsy it
is quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, and especially
the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebrae, furnish a sufficient
explanation of the septic condition which existed.
D.W. BLISS.
J.K. BARNES.
J.J. WOODWARD.
ROBERT REYBURN.
FRANK H. HAMILTON.
D. HAYES AGNEW.
ANDREW H. SMITH.
D.S. LAMB.
[September 20, 1881.]