Health and Medical History of President

William Harrison

President #9: 1841-1841
Lived 1773-1841
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Health and Medical History of President

William Harrison

President #9: 1841-1841
Lived 1773-1841
Lived 1773-1841 2023 1776
Revolutionary War
1776-1783
War of 1812
1812-1815
Mexican-American War
1846-1848
Civil War
1861-1865
Spanish-American War
1898-1899
World War 1
1917-1918
World War 2
1941-1945
Korean War
1950-1953
Viet Nam War
1964-1975
Desert Storm
1990-1991
Bush's Wars
2001-2021
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Maladies & Conditions  · teetotaler · ulcer? · stress? · pneumonia

Odds & Ends · Doctors · Resources · Cited Sources

Maladies and Conditions
teetotaler
Harrison was a teetotaler in an era when alcoholism was rife. (Of course, alcoholism is still rife today.) 1a
ulcer?
Harrison was stern, tall, and austere. He could eat only certain foods, such as cheese and milk products. At least one commentator thinks this combination of gaunt appearance and ascetic behavior could be resulted from ulcer disease. 1a [Unclear whether the description of Harrison's gnawing pain, relieved by milk products, is a deduction or fact. Same concern for the description of Harrison as having "ulcer facies."] 1b
stress?
To say that Harrison was mobbed by office seekers after his inauguration is an understatement:

General Harrison was ... smothered by the most shameless swarm of fortune hunters the capital had seen since the coming of another Hero twelve years before [Jackson, 1829].... They filled every room [of the lower level of the White House] and defied eviction. The President opened a door, expecting to meet his Cabinet. The spoilsmen crushed about him. Soon the Executive's pockets were filled with their petitions, then his hat, then his arms; and thus he staggered upstairs to revive himself with "stimulants." 2a
pneumonia
Harrison gave a two hour inaugural speech on a cold, wet, and blustery March 4. He caught a cold, which is not surprising given the President's thin, malnourished state. The White House was poorly heated at that time, and by March 27 he was very sick with right lower lobe pneumonia and "congestion of the liver." 1c MORE
Odds and Ends
Doctors
Resources
 
V
2 reviews
Ampres Series
Collins
46 reviews
 
Owens
19 reviews
Kansas Series
Peterson
9 reviews
Signature Series
Cleaves
27 reviews
Cited Sources
  1. MacMahon, Edward B. and Curry, Leonard. Medical Cover-Ups in the White House. Washington, DC: Farragut, 1987.
    a  p.17  b  p.15  c  p.18  d  pp.17-18
  2. James, Marquis. Andrew Jackson: Portrait of a President. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, unknown year (originally published in 1937 by Bobbs-Merrill).
    a  p.456
  3. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981.
    a  p.196

    Comment: Maps -- in great detail -- the ancestors and descendants of American presidents through Ronald Reagan. They would have had an exhausting time with President Obama's family tree! MORE

Other Sources
Pubmed Search   (1 match when checked in March 2013)

George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Q. Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin van Buren · William Harrison · John Tyler · James Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses Grant · Rutherford Hayes · James Garfield · Chester Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · Grover Cleveland · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin Roosevelt · Harry Truman · Dwight Eisenhower · John Kennedy · Lyndon Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · James Carter · Ronald Reagan · George Bush · William Clinton · George W. Bush · Barack Obama · Donald Trump · Joseph Biden