NEW YORK TIMES
April 19, 1885
ULYSSES S. GRANT HOLDS HIS OWN. NO APPARENT CHANGE IN HIS CONDITION.
At 11 o'clock yesterday morning, the curtains were parted in General Grant's sleeping window and between them appeared the patient's own figure. His brown gown hung loosely about him. He wore a skull cap of black silk and leaned heavily on a cane. Hates were raised and the General saluted. The General looked plucky but still a good deal of a patient. His face shows confinement and suffering. There are no deep lines, but it is sunken below the cheeks and the color is not longer fresh. The color now approaches light bronze, shaded with warmth. His beard has whitened, and low to the cheeks and around the chin it is nearly purely white. The patient's frame has sunken. The shoulders were bent forward and thin, while from the sunken chest downward his form retreated at an inclination in pitiful contrast with his once robust form. He stood at the window for several minutes and slowly turned away. Then he appeared at the library window and a chair was brought for him. He picked up a newspaper and for half an hour read, in full view of those passing on the street.
In the afternoon, the General again appeared at the window of his sleeping room window. He had changed his gown for a coat and his silk cap for a knit one of blue, which was folded above the ears. A red silk scarf still circle his neck. To the delight of those below, the General nodded to several passer-byers. Two or three times in the next 20 minutes the General returned to the window and he seemed to enjoy getting so near outdoors. Dr. Newman visited him this morning and said: "I was delighted to find him this morning cheerful and bright. I think he begins to hope he may recover. The family catering of warm weather plans should the General live so long. He will probably go to the mountains, probably the Catskills." Dr. Douglas then said: "The General is better than he has been since the hemorrhage. The throat is clear but the glandular swelling at the base of the tongue is still very bad. We have gone over the situation with the General and the family and they must take it for granted that he will not recover."
The General sat up during the evening and the family joined him in the library. General Rufas Ingalls visited him and spent some time conversing with his old friend. A physician who is thoroughly informed on the case said last night: "General Grant has cancer. Seven physicians, some of them eminent in their profession have diagnosed the case and there is not one of them who would risk his reputation if General Grant weren't suffering from it. If he recovered it will be the first case of cancer ever cured, and such would go on record in the medical world. One of the best known doctors has spent the past two days in examination of the infected cells, and he said that there was not the slightest doubt as to the disease. there is a fair possibility that the General may live through the summer. His doctors think he will die within the next two months - that is, the cancer will prove fatal at that time. General Grant may get well enough to walk in the street, but he also liable to die at any moment from the sudden growth of the disease." |