{"data":{"description":"Archiving Early America - How  Washington  Died","title":"How  Washington  Died","post_type":"post","content":"\u003cstrong\u003eBy Don Vitale\u003c/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nIt was 10 in the morning when George Washington rode his horse\r\nthrough heavy snow to inspect his plantation at Mount Vernon.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nStill physically robust at the age of 67, Washington spent five hours outside marking\r\ntrees he planned to cut....riding amidst snow, hail and freezing rain.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nBy the time he arrived home, his clothes were soaking wet...and cold.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nIt was Thursday December 12 1799.\r\n\r\nThe next morning Washington awoke with a sore throat yet he still rode outside\r\nmarking additional trees to be cut. That evening he complained of severe hoarseness\r\nand spent the time reading newspapers with his wife Martha and Colonel Tobias Lear,\r\nhis private secretary.\r\n\r\nColonel Lear suggested Washington take medication but America's Founding Father\r\nwaived it off with, \"You know I never take anything for a cold. Let it go as it came.\"\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nHowever in the early morning hours of Saturday he told Martha that he was not well,\r\nthat it was hard for him to breathe and could barely speak.\r\n\r\nColonel Lear sent for the overseer Mr. Rawlins who prepared a mixture of molasses, vinegar and butter. Washington tried to swallow it but went into a convulsion.\r\n\r\nIt should be noted that Washington was a firm believer of bloodletting after\r\nseeing it cure various maladies on those who worked for him. He told Rawlins\r\nto remove some blood which Rawlins did, a pint from Washington's arm. Martha, who was against bloodletting, begged them to remove only a small amount.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nDoctor James Craik arrived, Washington's friend and personal physician. Followed by\r\nGustavus Richard Brown and Doctor Elisha Cullen Dick, both prominent physicians.\r\n\r\nDr. Craik placed a blister of catharides (otherwise known as dried beetles) on his patient's throat. Then he performed two venesections of 20 ounces each.\r\nA venesection (for those uninformed in such matters, in other words you and I)\r\nis the removal of blood through your veins. In addition to the venesection a solution of\r\nvinegar and hot water was prepared to ease Washington's sore throat and his inability to swallow. Since that did not alleviate the symptoms, Dr. Craik repeated a venesection removing another 40 ounces of blood.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nWhen that did not work, Dr. Dick continued with bloodletting, taking 32 ounces of blood\r\nfrom Washington's forearm.\r\n\r\nAs his condition continued to deteriorate, Washington spoke to his three attending\r\nphysicians. \"I feel myself going, I thank you for your intentions but I pray you take\r\nno more troubles about me. Let me go off quietly, I cannot last long.\"\r\n\r\nThe three physicians all that night applied blisters and poultices of wheat bran\r\nto his legs.\r\n\r\nDr. Dick's recommendation at this point was that his patient's trachea be perforated.\r\nThis newly reported procedure was a last resort for those said to be at death's door.\r\nBoth Drs. Craik and Brown refused to allow this procedure to be used.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nDr. Dick's explained later:\r\n\r\n\"I proposed to perforate the trachea as a means of prolonging life and of affording time\r\nfor the removal of the obstruction to respiration in the larynx which manifestly threatened speedy resolution.\"\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nAs to the bloodletting, the total quantity of blood removed from Washington\r\nwas approximately 124 ounces...that's 3.75 liters...drawn over nine to ten hours.\r\nThat's a lot of blood...more than half his body's total blood volume!\r\n\r\nApparently bloodletting was used in those days as a remedy for\r\na variety of illnesses. But Hey Buster....aren't you glad you live today!\r\n\r\nAnd that's not to say that everyone agreed with the treatment applied on Washington.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nSix weeks after Washington's death Dr. James Brickell criticized\r\nthe procedures used by the three doctors.\r\n\r\n\"I think it my duty to point out what appears to me\r\na most fatal error in their plan...old people cannot bear bleeding as well as\r\nthe young...we see...they drew from a man in the 69th (sic) year of his age\r\nthe enormous quantity....in about 13 hours.\r\n\r\n\"Very few of the most robust young men in the world could survive such\r\na loss of blood; but the body of an aged person....and all his power so\r\nweakened by it as to make his death speedy and inevitable.\"\r\n\r\nDr. Brickell's article was not made public until 1903, a hundred years later.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nIt goes without saying that all three physicians were prominent in their fields, acting\r\nin the former President's best interests in treating him over the three-day period.\r\n\r\nIn the room where the Father of Our Country lay dying his 19-year-old step-grandson George Washington Custis watched, a witness to his grandfather's final moments:\r\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\"...as the night advanced it became evident that he was sinking and he seemed fully aware that 'his hour was nigh.'  He inquired the time and, and was answered a few minutes to ten. He spoke no more-- the hand of death was upon him, and he was conscious that 'his hour was come.'  With surprising self-possession he prepared to die. Composing his form at length, and folding his arms on his bosom, without a sigh, without a groan, the Father of The Country Died. No pang or struggle told when the noble spirit took its noiseless flight: while so tranquil appeared the manly features in the repose of death, that some moments had passed ere those could believe that the patriarch was no more.\"\u003cstrong\u003e--dv\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e","menu":[{"path":"lives-early-america","title":"Famous Lives","submenu":[{"path":"lives-early-america/autobiography-benjamin-franklin","title":"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"},{"path":"lives-early-america/ramsays-life-washington","title":"Ramsay's The Life of Washington"},{"path":"lives-early-america/adventures-col-daniel-boone","title":"The Adventures of Col. 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