The Physical Lincoln

[Joe Di Cola]

Based on the comments made by those present at Lincoln's autopsy about his excellent physique and on the fact that the cancer mentioned by Dr. Sotos usually takes a life earlier than the age of 56, all of the information about the physical Lincoln is speculative. The trouble with trying to extract usable DNA from Mary Lincoln's cape or Laura Keene's dress or Dr. Leale's cuffs is that the chain of custody has been repeatedly broken and any DNA might be seriously compromised through contamination. This might also be true for the extant hair samples from Lincoln.

This specualtion about Lincoln and cancer also reminds me of the same guesses about whether FDR died from cancer. In photos from the early 1940s there is a discernible mole present over one of his eyebrows; the mole is gone in photos taken a year or two later. Was it removed? Probably. And since FDR appeared so wan and thin in late 1944 through April 1945, this has led to speculation that he had cancer and probably died from it. I have a copy of clinical notes sent to me some years ago by Dr. Howard Bruenn who made the notes on FDR's condition after treating him in his last year, and all of his conclusions point to congestive heart failure as the contributing factor in FDR's death--not cancer.

While all of the specualtion is interesting, we will never know for sure. Gunshot and cerebral hemmorhage seem to be the only conclusions we can definitely make in the deaths, respectively, of Lincoln and FDR.