
A President Felled by an Assassin and 1880s Medical Care - ohaikbai
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/health/25garf.html
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taxicabjesus
Ignaz Semmelweis [1] was one of the first to advocate for more sterile
conditions in hospitals. His contemporaries mocked him for his insistence that
they wash their hands between autopsies and examining women who'd just given
birth.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis)

Medicine has come a long way, but there are still some areas that need
improvement. Society's approach to addiction (alcohol, etc) needs a complete
scrap & rewrite.

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cloverich
Candace Millard's book "the destiny of the republic" covers this and is pretty
good. Garfield seemed like the type of person who could have done great things
in office, given his apparent intelligence and humble upbringing. I also think
the journey of his assassin -- a mentally troubled individual with no real
reason to target Garfield -- is still relevant given the long US history
struggling with this subject.

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4X33O?_encoding=UTF8](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4X33O?_encoding=UTF8)

