Awaiting a Full Report

LOCAL PHYSICIANS DIVIDED ON THE QUESTION WHETHER THE
BULLET WAS OR WAS NOT POISONED.

     The medical world is eagerly awaiting a complete report of the last illness of President McKinley which Dr. Mann and other surgeons who attended the President have promised to prepare. The report of the findings of the autopsy is thought by many physicians to be too concise, and this view they say is borne out by the apparently conflicting statements made by some of those connected with the President’s case.
     The belief that the bullet was poisoned appears to be growing daily, though little has yet been revealed to indicate that it is well founded, according to some physicians. Certain poisons are used in the manufacture of wire. It has been suggested that some of these poisons may have been put on the bullet by Czolgosz, who was a wire worker. Physicians and surgeons of this city who have been asked for their opinion about the findings of the autopsy are seemingly about evenly divided as to whether or not the gangrene was of an ordinary character. When asked for his opinion regarding the autopsy, Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden said yesterday:

     The data at hand do not seem to justify me in expressing an opinion in regard to the conditions found at the autopsy. Any doubt as to the condition of affairs will probably be removed when a final report on the autopsy is made.
     There are some things which medical science cannot do, and the injury here was so serious that the highest skill which was brought to bear upon the President’s case did not suffice to save his life.

     Dr. Maurice J. Lewi said:

     It is difficult to formulate a correct opinion about the President’s case until a fuller report of the autopsy is made. If a poisoned bullet had been used it would seem as though its effects would have been earlier noticeable. Assuming that the bullet was not poisoned, the gangrenous condition of the organs, together with the fact that the incision made by the surgeon failed to heal by primary union, would indicate to my mind that at the time of receiving the injury the President’s general condition might have been below par. His surgeons were of the very best—men of worldwide repute and acknowledged skill.