President Ulysses Grant : Health & Medical History

Health and Medical History of President Ulysses Grant President #18 Lived: 1822-1885 Served: 1869-1877 Timeline from 1776: ← 2013 Maladies: complexity aversion · abuse? · snored · throat cancer · · Odds & Ends · · Resources
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Maladies and Conditions

complexity aversion	According to one historian, Grant's "peace of mind required that he be shielded from the complicated side of anything" 4a.
abuse?	How much did Grant smoke cigars and drink? During the first Battle of the Wilderness, Grant was seen to smoke 20 cigars from sunup to sundown 3a.
snored	Reliability of this information is uncertain. 5
throat cancer	It was with Grant's cancer that Americans began to fear this disease (saw this in a book called Cancer, written about 1988).

Odds & Ends

Grant was extremely tone-deaf. As President, he was once asked if he liked the music he had just heard in a concert. "How could I? I know only two tunes. One of them is 'Yankee Doodle' and the other isn't" 2a.
On the other hand, there is an anecdote that Abraham Lincoln, after being serenaded by a quartet of singers in 1860, said he wished he could sing like that, "but he knew only two tunes; one is 'Old One Hundred' and the other isn't'" 6a.
Interestingly, there are recent suggestions that the inability to perceive music can be a distinct neurological condition 1.
Pendel 8 tells a few anecdotes about Grant. They are not especially revealing. MORE
Grant was set to run for a third term. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1880, and came within a few votes of attaining it. But the convention deadlocked between Grant and anti-Grant forces, causing it to turn to a "dark horse" compromise -- James Garfield 9a.
As Grant lay dying, a minister began spending time at his bedside. At one point, Grant became unconscious. The minister sprinkled water over him, and performed some rites. A short time later the doctor succeeded in reviving Grant. The minister exclaimed: "It is Providence. It is Providence." The doctor responded, "No, it was the brandy" 2b. (Interestingly, Garfield's physician once said just the opposite.)
Through the Delano family, Grant was a fourth cousin once removed to Franklin Roosevelt, who was born three years before Grant's death 7a. Grant was also a sixth cousin once removed of Grover Cleveland 7b.

Resources

Cited Resources

Anonymous. Scanning a brain that's out of tune. Science News. 2002 Nov 23;162(21):334.
Comment: Reports the results Catherine L. Reed and colleagues: To not hear music: A case of congential amusia. Society for Neuroscience meeting. November 2-7, 2002. Orlando, Fla.
Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.0195029151 Libraries 80-27092. ap. 161 bp. 157
Bumgarner, John R. The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 1994.0899509568 Libraries 93-42000. ap. 137
Comment: Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.
Coletta, Paolo E. The Presidency of William Howard Taft. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1973. Libraries. ap. 259
Dugan, James. Bedlam in the boudoir. Colliers. 22 Feb. 1947; pages 17, 69-70.
Comment: Credibility is dubious. Just before a list of Presidents, the article states: "Twenty of the 32 Presidents ... are proved or believed on a thick web of circumstance to have been nocturnal nuisances in the White House."
Gary, Ralph. Following Lincoln's Footsteps. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001.0786709413 Libraries. ap. 68
Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981.0850110335 Libraries. ap. 323 bp. 322
Comment: Enumerates the ancestors and descendants of American presidents up through Ronald Reagan.
Pendel, Thomas F. Thirty-Six Years in the White House. Washington: Neale Publishing Company, 1902. Libraries.
Comment: Pendel was door-keeper at the White House from the time of Lincoln to the time of Theodore Roosevelt. Full text is available on-line at loc.gov. It's a rather dry book, and reads as if it were written by an old man. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?lhbcbbib:1:./temp/~~ammem_rEou::
Stoddard, Henry L. It Costs to Be President. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938. Libraries. app. 236-238
Comment: Stoddard was editor and owner of the New York Evening Mail from 1900 to 1925.

Other Resources

Pubmed Search (17 matches when checked in March 2013.)

Health and Medical History of President Ulysses Grant

Health and Medical History of President
Ulysses Grant