Portions of Charles Guiteau’s brain. Guiteau assassinated US President Garfield in 1881. Well, he shot Garfield, at the least. The shot that hit landed in one of Garfield’s lumbar vertebrae, but completely missed the spinal cord. Though he was hurting pretty bad, had the doctors just bandaged up the wound, kept it sterile (as was common practice just 10 years later), and not tried to extract the bullet, it’s very unlikely Garfield would have died from his wounds. Even for the day, the extreme “treatment” of Garfield’s wounds was seen as far more harmful than good, by both the medical community and eventually the general public. As Guiteau opined to the judge at his trial: “The doctors are the ones who killed Garfield; I just shot him!”

Portions of Charles Guiteau’s brain. Guiteau assassinated US President Garfield in 1881.

Well, he shot Garfield, at the least. The shot that hit landed in one of Garfield’s lumbar vertebrae, but completely missed the spinal cord. Though he was hurting pretty bad, had the doctors just bandaged up the wound, kept it sterile (as was common practice just 10 years later), and not tried to extract the bullet, it’s very unlikely Garfield would have died from his wounds. Even for the day, the extreme “treatment” of Garfield’s wounds was seen as far more harmful than good, by both the medical community and eventually the general public.

As Guiteau opined to the judge at his trial: “The doctors are the ones who killed Garfield; I just shot him!”

57 notes

Show

  1. geniusesandthieves reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  2. kisstherosary reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  3. fisticuffsinthedark reblogged this from theossuary
  4. es-ki-m0 reblogged this from odditiesandlove
  5. pythagoreantheorem replied:
  6. nakeesanicole reblogged this from theossuary
  7. jarpeople reblogged this from theossuary
  8. theossuary reblogged this from drtuesdaygjohnson
  9. girafficshark reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  10. hobbithalfguard reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  11. hoyersegundo reblogged this from biomedicalephemera and added:
    Portions of Charles Guiteau’s brain. Guiteau assassinated US President Garfield in 1881. Well, he shot Garfield, at the...
  12. theberlinimmigrant reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  13. brokenhyoid reblogged this from drtuesdaygjohnson
  14. kafka-tamura reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  15. organikcindy reblogged this from the-rx
  16. the-rx reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  17. faoilean reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  18. pickmanslovelymodel reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  19. amisam reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  20. somethingbypuccini reblogged this from alicechalice and added:
    Nothing to it, I want it, I’ll do it. I’m Charles J. Guiteau.
  21. treacherous-hair reblogged this from alicechalice and added:
    O_O
  22. alicechalice reblogged this from malachitegrey
  23. therurrjurr reblogged this from drtuesdaygjohnson
  24. lilsandthesuperwhowarsathogwarts reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  25. drtuesdaygjohnson reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  26. odditiesandlove reblogged this from biomedicalephemera
  27. biomedicalephemera posted this