Garfield was shot in a railway station on July 2, 1881 by disgruntled office-seeker Charles Guiteau. One bullet glanced off his arm and the other entered his back, hit a rib, and ended up in his abdomen. His medical care was poor from the start. He was taken upstairs to a private office on a mattress. The first doctor gave him brandy and spirits of ammonia, which caused him to vomit. The next doctor tried to locate the bullet using a “Nelaton Probe” which was a metal rod that was inserted in the wound to trace the path of the bullet. Unfortunately, not only did it not find the path but it got stuck in a rib resulting in a rather painful removal. Another doctor tried probing with his finger, which may have caused an infection that later took the President’s life. The President was moved to the White House. The whole country followed the doctors’ efforts, including Alexander Graham Bell. Bell figured a specially adapted telephone receiver might detect metal in Garfield’s body and thus reveal the location of the bullet so doctors could remove it. He was allowed to bring the machine into the room and by passing it under the bed, he detected a hum which he assumed was the bullet. The problem was the hum placed the bullet much deeper than the doctors had estimated. It was decided it would be too risky to attempt the operation. However, several days later when the President’s temperature spiked, they went in but did not find the bullet. Garfield died one month later,, on Sept. 19, 1881. The autopsy found the bullet a good ten inches away from where Bell’s machine detected it. And removal of the President’s body from the bed revealed the mattress rested on metal bed springs which would have thrown off Bell’s machine! Shenkman 153-4 / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield
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