Traumatic Pancreas Necrosis

     Several medical writers claim that the death of President McKinley was directly due to the wound of the pancreas produced by the assassin’s bullet. In reporting a case of this character Dr. F. Selberg (quoted in New York Medical Journal) says that necrosis or gangrene, following injury to the pancreas, may arise from an escape of the pancreatic fluids into the surrounding tissues, thereby causing a digestion of the pancreas and abdominal fat; or it may follow from the fact that the injured organ may itself become gangrenous, thus furnishing a suitable nidus for bacterial growth.