The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield: Twentieth President of the United States, Including Full and Accurate Details of His Eventful Administration, Assassination, Last Hours, Death, Etc., Together with Notable Extracts from His Speeches and LettersBrown, E. E. (Emma Elizabeth)
History
The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield: Twentieth President of the United States, Including Full and Accurate Details of His Eventful Administration, Assassination, Last Hours, Death, Etc., Together with Notable Extracts from His Speeches and Letters
Brown, E. E. (Emma Elizabeth)
Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881; Presidents -- United States -- Biography
deep fissures extended from the track of the bullet into the lower part
of the body of the twelfth dorsal vertebra. Others extended through the
first lumbar vertebra into the intervertebral cartilage, between it and
the second lumbar vertebra. Both this cartilage and the next above were
partly destroyed by ulceration. A number of minute fragments from the
fractured lumbar vertebra had been driven into the adjacent soft parts.
It was further found that the right twelfth rib also was fractured at a
point one and a quarter inches to the right of the transverse process of
the twelfth dorsal vertebra. This injury had not been recognized during
life. On sawing through the vertebra, a little to the right of the
median line, it was found that the spinal canal was not involved by the
track of the ball. The spinal cord and other contents of this portion of
the spinal canal presented no abnormal appearance. The rest of the
spinal cord was not examined. Beyond the first lumbar vertebra, the
bullet continued to go to the left, passing behind the pancreas to the
point where it was found. Here it was enveloped in a firm cyst of
connective tissues, which contained, beside the ball, a minute quantity
of inspissated somewhat cheesy pus, which formed a thin layer of a
portion of the surface of the lead. There was also a black shred
adherent to a part of the cyst wall, which proved, on microscopal
examination, to be the remains of a blood clot. For about an inch from
this cyst, the track of the ball behind the pancreas was completely
obliterated by the healing process. Thence as far backward as the body
of the first lumbar vertebra the track was filled with coagulated blood,
which extended on the left into an irregular space rent in the adjoining
adipose tissue behind the peritoneum and above the pancreas. The blood
had worked its way to the left, bursting finally through the peritoneum
behind the spleen into the abdominal cavity.
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