Distribution of Some of the Death Clothes

[wsanto]

(12-03-2012 05:41 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  I have Dr. Sotos' book titled The Physical Lincoln. He makes many arguments and includes many photos to show the reader that Lincoln may have had MEN2B. Dr. Sotos disagrees with the doctors who feel Lincoln had Marfan's..

Roger, I've briefly reviewed Dr. Soto's arguments for Lincoln's possible medical condition. I also watched "Lincoln's Secret Killer" (NatGeo Doc on Dr Sotos and his investigation). You can view it on Youtube. They were able to collect some DNA samples from a bloody swatch of Keene's dress and from a bloodied bandage. On the one hand, both samples were fairly degraded but, on the other, neither showed the mutation for MEN2B. Of course, Sotos is right to argue that the DNA collected may not be Lincoln's (fraudulent relics, Rathbone's blood, contamination with modern DNA, etc.) but the negative tests are a huge discouragement for his hypothesis.

I agree that it is unlikely that Lincoln had either Marfan Syndrome or MEN2B. The evidence against both is pretty good. The chance that Llincoln would have survived into his sixth decade with MEN2B is not zero, but it is as close as you can get. Apparentlly, most MEN2B patients, if untreated, die in their first or second decade. They all develop a very aggressive form of thyroid cancer early in life.

Dr. Sotos claim that he was dying from cancer (related to MEN2B) at the time of his assassination is again almost pure speculation. Lincoln was a bit emaciated and had aged a few decades while President but there doesn't seem to be any real evidence that he was dying of cancer or of anything else for that matter.

Like Bob Dylan says--"if your not busy bein' born, you're busy dyin'.