The Month [excerpt]

     Dr. Mann, who performed the surgical operation upon the late President, and Dr. Mynter, who assisted him, were good enough to present an abstract of their report upon the case of the President—a report which has since been published in the weekly medical journals—to a large meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday. These gentlemen added to the scientific statement, which is now so familiar to all our readers, by making verbal remarks about the manner in which the noble man endured the “deep damnation of his taking off.” Dr. Mynter said that there was no equal in history of his kind expressions—not for himself, but for the wretch who inflicted the awful deed—and he compared the behavior of the President under these dreadful circumstances to that of our Lord upon the cross, when he prayed for the forgiveness of those who were putting him to death.

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     Certainly there is no greater example of noble behavior, under the direst circumstances that can befall a human being, than that of President McKinley; but there are not wanting other instances in history where victims of assassins have died with no revenge in their hearts for their enemies. When William of Orange fell upon the stairway leading to the banquet hall in Delft shot by an emissary of Philip the Second, in his mortal agony his exclamation was, “God save this poor people!” realizing as he did what a loss his personality would be to the struggling Netherlands. Now that the excitement has passed away in regard to the wound of the President and its consequences, it seems to be pretty clear what Drs. Mann and Mynter only give as a possible cause of the unexpected death after such a favorable course in the symptoms for several days—that is to say, that the President died from a weak heart. A man who led an utterly sedentary life, except so far as driving in a carriage or riding in the railway cars was concerned, had nothing with which to resist when a great shock occurred and no vitality with which to repair when repair was absolutely essential to recovery. Either Dr. Mann or Dr. Mynter remarked most graphically, that if President Roosevelt [1008][1009] had been shot in the same manner he would have recovered. A very able leading article in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal contends in a very moderate way, that the President may have died from pancreatitis, and suggests that a drainage dressing might possibly have been used with advantage. But none of the surgeons in actual attendance have this view.