Did Mary Lincoln need committal?

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Laurie. I just checked Barton's The Women Lincoln Loved. On p. 367 he writes that the attending physician "issued a statement that for years she had been the victim of a cerebral disease."

Dr. Thomas W. Dresser wrote "paralysis" as the cause of death on the death certificate. In 1889 Dr. Dresser wrote Herndon saying, "In the late years of her life certain mental peculiarities were developed which finally culminated in a slight apoplexy, producing paralysis, of which she died."

Jason Emerson has written the cause of death was most likely a stroke. In the article referenced by Laurie, Dr. Norbert Hirschhorn discusses his theory that Mary suffered from tabes dorsalis. Over 80 years ago Dr. William A. Evans suggested the possibility of diabetic coma.

So I suppose Dresser's "cerebral disease" was interpreted as "brain tumor" despite the fact there was no autopsy.