Death by Lightning Series-Finale Recap: A Minor Footnote

"When Candice Millard wrote Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President, she came at the story of James Garfield from a fittingly odd angle given his relative obscurity among American presidents. Millard recalls reading a biography of Alexander Graham Bell, who had invented the telephone but dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy to developing a metal detector of sorts, called an "induction balance," for the purpose of locating the bullet lodged in Garfield's body. Millard writes that while it took her three years to complete the book, "it took only a few days of research to realize what Bell must have known - that President Garfield was not only a tragic figure, but one of the most extraordinary men ever elected President of the United States." That, in the end, became the book's driving purpose."

"She also spends time - a lot more time - on the stultifying arrogance and backward thinking that led Garfield to die at the hands of Dr. Willard Bliss, whose rejection of basic anti-septic principles was much more to blame for Garfield's fate than Charles Guiteau's bullets. Part of the tragedy in Destiny of the Republic is that the assassination happened just before advances in medicine and technology - to say nothing of tighter security - would surely have saved the president."

Alexander Graham Bell developed an induction balance to locate the bullet lodged in President James Garfield's body, investing substantial effort despite inventing the telephone. Bell's device ultimately failed to find the bullet. Dr. Willard Bliss rejected basic antiseptic principles and applied backward, arrogant care that contributed more to Garfield's death than Charles Guiteau's bullet. The assassination occurred just before imminent advances in medicine, technology, and security that likely would have saved the president. The television adaptation Death by Lightning condenses the narrative into four hours and sidelines Bell and Bliss despite Garfield spending about 80 of his 200 days in office suffering from his wounds.

Read at Vulture