EXECUTIVE MANSION,
July 22, 1881.
8.30 A. M.
The President rested well during the night, and is quite easy this morning. Pulse, 88; temperature, 98.4°; respiration, 17.
D. W. BLISS,
J. K. BARNES,
J. J. WOODWARD,
ROBT. REYBURN.
This post is one of a series reenacting the official bulletins released to the public by the physicians to President Garfield during his illness after the shooting on July 2, 1881.
I hope that at some point you make best informed comment about the survivability of the President’s wound, given the state of surgical knowledge at the time, if the President’s doctors had not mucked around the wound–or if some specific action might have helped.
Thank you for your comment, and your observation, with which we certainly agree and will engage in a future post. We’re simply allowing these bulletins to speak for themselves in a new way, since they have not done so at all since their first appearance in 1881. Regardless, again, your point is well-taken and we appreciate your interest and following this saga with so many interested others!