Anatifacts

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President James Garfield's Vertebrae

On the morning of July 2, 1881, Charles Guiteau fired two shots at President James Garfield as he entered a Washington, DC train station. One shot grazed Garfield's hand. The second entered the President's spine near the right 11th rib but did not exit.

(NCP 1863)

The x-ray, which would easily have pinpointed the bullet's location, had not yet been discovered. So the President's physicians did what all competent physicians had routinely done in such cases. They probed the entry wound with special instruments designed for that purpose - but without success. The bullet remained lost inside the President. Medical historians believe Garfield could have survived his injury if the attending physicians had washed their hands and used sterile instruments. In 1881, though, such antisepsis techniques were still under debate within the American medical profession.

(AFIP 71787)

President Garfield died on September 19 of complications from his injuries. Army Medical Museum pathologists removed these vertebrae (the 12th thoracic and 1st and 2nd lumbar) at autopsy to document the wound and resulting infection. The plastic probe shows the path of the bullet.

"Death Bed of President Garfield" from Harper's Weekly (NCP 1861)