Lincoln's embalmment

[Houmes]

(01-07-2015 05:07 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  I read once that head/brain trauma injuries are notorious bleeders. And I distinctly remember being traumatized as a child after seeing photos of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy dying on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel. He had what looked like a huge pool of blood under his head after being shot behind the ear(mastoid bone). This sounds very similar to AL's injury.

At the back of the head, underneath the brain and inside the skull, are two large veins called the Lateral (some call them Transverse) sinuses. There is one on each side of the brain. They collect the blood from the back of the brain, enroute back to the heart. Similarly, on each side coursing up and into the brain is an artery called the superior cerebral artery, bringing blood up to the brain.

Lincoln was sitting with his head slumped forward, with the bullet wound facing upward. When Dr. Leale arrived he noted the president had little or no pulse. At the later autopsy, it was found that Booth's bullet had perforated the left lateral sinus. Gravity (and the shock to the brain from the injury) played a part in the president's low blood pressure, slowing the drainage up and out of the wound. After Dr. Leale placed Mr. Lincoln on the floor and ran his fingers through the president's scalp, enough time had passed that he found a clot in the bullet hole.

Robert Kennedy's wound was far different. Sirhan Sirhan's gun was a .22 caliber revolver with a muzzle velocity of 1,280 feet per second. The gun was fired point-blank and there were powder burns on Kennedy's scalp. Booth's deringer had a muzzle velocity of 425 feet per second, and was fired some distance away; none of Mr. Lincoln's physicians reported any powder burns. In gunshot wounds, bullet velocity is exponentially more important than the mass of the bullet, and causes more trauma. Sirhan's bullet not only tore through the right lateral sinus but also the right cerebral artery, so there was both venous and arterial drainage. Venous blood pressure is normally lower than arterial blood pressure, accounting for more bleeding from Kennedy's wound than Lincoln's. In addition, the people around Mr. Kennedy immediately placed him on the floor, on his back, with the bullet hole underneath, which--with gravity--allowed more drainage.