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Health and Medical History of President Chester ArthurPresident #21: 1881-1885
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Lived 1829-1886
2021
1776
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"Arthur's administration was the first to systematically mislead the public about the President's health." 1a |
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| This style... | ... means the event occurred while President. |
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 trim as youth |
Arthur was about 6 feet 2 inches tall. As a young man he weighed a trim 175-185 pounds
1b.
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  lavish lifestyle |
Later in life, Arthur was described as a "high liver who ate and drank excessively"
1b.
He was enthusiastic about fine wines and after-dinner liqueurs
1b.
His love for rich foods and his sedentary lifestyle ultimately added weight, at some point
reaching 220 pounds
1a.
As President, he "pursued a lavish social life, entertaining ... friends smoking,
drinking, and conversing. It was said that no human being could withstand the stress produced
by such socializing combined with the extreme pressures of his official office"
1a.
Despite his appetites and his being a widower President, "his personal life was impeccable"
2a.
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 abdominal troubles |
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 Bright's disease |
Arthur was fatigued, irritable, and physically ill during 1882. There are reports that the
Surgeon General examined Arthur in October (i.e. about a year after becoming President) and
diagnosed the kidney affliction known as "Bright's disease"
1a.
Comment:
Bright's disease is no longer a recognized concept in medicine, because it lumped too many
different kidney disorders into one "disease." Thus, the exact nature of Arthur's
ailment is unknown. But because Bright's disease was considered uniformly fatal, Arthur knew
he had a death sentence.
New York specialists examined the President, but all they could do was advise rest and
relaxation
1a.
A cover-up began. When the New York Herald reported the story, an Arthur spokesman
specifically denied the President had Bright's disease or any kidney complaints. The spokesman
claimed the President had a mild form of malaria
1c
(then endemic in Washington DC).
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 malaria? |
It's not clear to Dr. Zebra whether Arthur really did have malaria on top of his other
medical problems in late 1882 (see "Bright's disease" entry, above).
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 cardiovascular disease |
By March 1883 Arthur's steadily worsening physical problems now involved his heart. He probably
had hypertension and cardiac complications of hypertension
1c.
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  mental changes |
Arthur took a vacation in Florida in April 1883, but the hot humid weather increased his fatigue
and irritability. He had periods of sullen withdrawl and was described as "not himself"
1e.
In the winter of 1883-1884, "his associates noted that late at night while socializing
his face was lined, his eyes dulled, and his mind much less acute than it had been"
1a.
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 snored |
Reliability of this information
3
is uncertain, but given his obesity it would hardly be surprising.
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heart failure |
Arthur practiced law and business after leaving the Presidency in March 1885, but was advised
to retire for medical reasons in February 1886
2b.
His last months were miserable. He was recognized as having cardiac problems in early
1886. The symptoms were those of heart failure: dyspnea, orthopnea, edema, cachexia. He needed
opiates to sleep. In June 1886 Arthur tried relocating from New York to the cooler climate
of Connecticut, but found no relief. He returned to New York and told a friend "After
all, life is not worth living. I might as well give up the struggle for it now as at any other
time and submit to the inevitable"
1d.
Comment:
His terminal symptoms are also consistent with end-stage renal disease. It would be interesting
to know more about his mental status during these final months.
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  cerebral hemorrhage |
Arthur died of a cerebral hemorrhage on November 18, 1886, about 24 hours after being found
unconscious by his nurse
1d.
Comment:
Given his history of hypertension, this was most likely a hypertensive bleed.
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| During Presidency |
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a p.132 b p.131 c p.133 d p.134 e pp.133-134
Comment: Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.
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a p.354 b p.356
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
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| Comment: Credibility is dubious. Just before a list of Presidents, the article states: "Twenty of the 32 Presidents ... are proved or believed on a thick web of circumstance to have been nocturnal nuisances in the White House." |
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a p.128
Comment: Pendel was door-keeper at the White House from the time of Lincoln to the time of Theodore Roosevelt. Full text is available on-line at loc.gov. It is a rather dry book, and reads as if it were written by an old man. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?lhbcbbib:1:./temp/~~ammem_rEou::
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