Lincoln's 1865 Autopsy Report and Death Certificate

[maharba]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the contributions of all Symposium participants in their information...but none of the links 'clicked through' for my older computer. And so, I fall back instead on my old scrapbooks and clippings picked up from junk sales and such. This week, I found another 'nest' of thrown out Lincoln material and it said what I had heard before about Lincoln shortly before he was executed. A lot of times with those old clippings and articles you can put them in the freezer and carefully separate 'stuck together' thin paper articles. But it said basically that the day before (being killed) Lincoln had shaken a lot of hands and so his right hand/arm was very significantly swollen more so than the left hand. I believe it says that the autopsy of Abraham Lincoln even noted that his right hand was much larger in appearance (from that cause) then the left hand. It almost, to my own scant physiological understanding, indicates a diminished draining of lymph away from Lincoln's right arm/hand --from the long day of handshaking--and may point to perhaps some physiological impairment of Lincoln. As he went on to the Ford Theater and sitting there in the old rocking chair relaxing, I wonder if that (lack of full strength in the right arm) was a contributing factor in not being to respond quickly to protect himself. Possibly, this has been talked about before?