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Woodrow Wilson: His Cold on the Front Page

   
 

cold On what must have been a slow news day, the President's cold was front-page news in the New York Times on Dec. 12, 1913 [1] -- underneath a story about the 70-pound weight loss achieved by former President William Taft.

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The full New York Times story is provided below [1].

  Comment: Notice the article's mention of the fever and, immediately afterwards, the statement that Wilson's condition is not serious. This is a reminder of the dread and horror that simple fevers caused in the era before antibiotics were available. A person could be vigorous and healthy one day, develop a fever, and be dead a week later. Antibiotics have changed the lives of human beings to a degree that few other inventions have. Anyone who professes great faith in "natural" remedies would be well advised to remember that for 2 million years it was very natural to rapidly die from a bacterial infection.


PRESIDENT WILSON ILL AGAIN

His Cold Returns, with Some Fever, and He Is in Bed.

Special to The New York Times.


WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- After two or three days of apparent recovery, President Wilson to-day went back to his bed with a bad cold. It was said that his cold had brought on a slight fever, but his condition was not serious.

The President addressed a meeting of the American Red Cross yesterday, but afterward he was so hoarse that he could not keep his engagement to address the Chamber of Commerce of Rochester by long-distance telephone.

The President's physician, Dr. Cary Grayson, visited his patient several times, and insisted upon the President keeping to his bed for the day and to his room for several days to come. As a result all engagements were canceled. It is not expected that the President will be about again before Monday.

Mr. Wilson slept during the late afternoon. He was reported to-night to be resting comfortably and feeling much better.

While the President denied himself to visitors, Secretary Tumulty had a busy day at the executive offices. Among his callers were Roger C. Sullivan, Democratic National Committeeman of Illinois; Thomas P. Riley, Democratic State Chairman of Massachusetts, and W. J. Connors of Buffalo, former New York State Chairman, who came to talk politics of their respective States.


     Resources[Top]
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  1. Anonymous. President Wilson Ill Again. New York Times. December 12, 1913; Page 1.

  2. Benbow, Mark. Personal communication. July 2, 2003.

  3. Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-19-502915-1 @ Amazon   [a] p. 218

  4. Grayson, CT. Woodrow Wilson -- An Intimate Memoir. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, Winston, 1960.
        Grayson was Wilson's physician during his entire tenure as President. No presidential physician before or since Grayson has had as close a relationship with the Chief Executive. It is remarkable that, in his book, Grayson devotes only one paragraph to Wilson's stroke (page 100).

  5. 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. 65 [b] p. 5

  6. 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.

  7. Park, Bert Edward. The Impact of Illness of World Leaders. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8122-8005-9 @ Amazon

  8. Post, Jerrold M. and Robins, Robert S. When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-300-06314-8 @ Amazon
        At one time Post worked for the CIA, profiling foreign leaders.

  9. Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939.

  10. Ross, Ishbel. An American Family: The Tafts - 1678 to 1964. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co., 1964.

  11. Smith, Gene. When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1964.

  12. Stoddard, Henry L. It Costs to Be President. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938.
        Stoddard was editor and owner of the New York Evening Mail from 1900 to 1925.

  13. Web page: http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/funfacts.htm
    (From the web site of the Woodrow Wilson house in Washington, DC (9 Jul 03))

  14. Weinstein, Edwin A. Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.

  15. The Woodrow Wilson web page at the White House.

  16.  (19 matches when checked in November 2003)
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