Zachary Taylor: Final Illness

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	The Health and Medical History of President
	Zachary Taylor: Final Illness

Death:
typhoid?

July 4, 1850 was a hot day in a hot and humid summer in Washington, DC. Dysentery was circulating in town, though some said it was cholera [2g]. President Taylor, not in the best of health already (see above) attended various Independence Day ceremonies. That evening he began having abdominal cramps, possibly the result of something he ate. He steadily worsened: diarrhea and fever developed, and the diarrhea turned bloody. His doctors tried what they could. He died on July 9.

Some details of those days are available but the cause of Taylor's death will probably never be known with certainty. Typhoid fever has been proposed, with suspicion directed at the cherries Taylor ate on the 4th [4a].

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Here is a chronology of Taylor's final illness, taken from [2h] unless noted otherwise:

July 4 morning Taylor attended a Sunday school recital.

About this time, ate several green apples.

July 4 afternoon Sat in blistering hot heat during ceremony at Washington Monument.

Afterwards, took extended walk along the Potomac River.

Arrived back at White House very thirsty and hungry.

Ate large amounts of raw fruit, said to be cherries.

Drank great deal of cold water and milk.

July 4 dinner Drank a great deal of cold liquids.

Ate a considerable amount of cherries.

Admonished by his physician for both.

Soon after dinner, developed abdominal discomfort, nausea, cramps.

July 4 night Spent an uncomfortable night.

Apparently not ill enough to alarm anyone.

July 5 Dr. Alexander Wotherspoon called to White House.

His diagnosis: cholera morbus (see comments at end).

Treatment: calomel and opium relieved discomfort somewhat.

Intermittent fever.

Great thirst: ate ice.

July 8 Depressed. Predicts his own death.

Dystentery appears.

Vomiting worsens.

July 9 Worse.

5 pm Barely alive.

Treatment: bleeding and blistering.

10:35 pm Dies.

"Cholera morbus" implies diarrhea only. It has nothing to do with classic Asiatic cholera.

It has been said that the cherries were cooled on ice made from contaminated water [4a], however, there are no primary references given for this statement.

Resources

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???. Death of the President of the United States. New York Medical Gazette. 1850;1:43.
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. ISBN 0-89950-956-8 @ Amazon [a] p. 75 - He was right. [b] pp. 72-73 [c] p. 73, citing Marx, who, in turn, never provides references [d] p. 73 [e] pp. 73-74 [f] p. 74 [g] p. 75 [h] pp. 75
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.
Marx, Rudolph. The Health of the Presidents. New York: GP Putnam's Sons, 1960.
MacMahon, Edward B. and Curry, Leonard. Medical Cover-Ups in the White House. Washington, DC: Farragut, 1987. ISBN 0-918535-01-8 @ Amazon [a] p. 18
Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of American. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981. ISBN 0-85011-033-5 @ Amazon
Enumerates the ancestors and descendants of American presidents up through Ronald Reagan.
Parenti, Michael. History as Mystery. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1999. ISBN 0872863573 @ Amazon
Pages 209-240 discuss Taylor's demise and the 1991 testing for toxic substances. Dr. Zebra has not read this book. Apparently, however, Parenti criticizes the arsenic testing performed on Taylor's hair because the arsenic concentration was reported as an average over the entire hair shaft. This would indeed tend to underestimate the arsenic concentration if Taylor had been poisoned, because if Taylor had been poisoned, arsenic would have been deposited only in the part of the hair that grew between the time of the poisoning and death -- supposedly just a few days. Thus, only the smallest bit of hair nearest the scalp would have arsenic and the rest of each hair shaft would be arsenic-free. The concentration of arsenic in the entire hair shaft is therefore irrelevant, and only the concentration nearest the scalp matters. This value was apparently not reported.
The Zachary Taylor web page at the White House.
(1 match when checked in November 2003)

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