In December, 1880, he was examined by two members of the board of
surgeons at Burlington, Vt., of which board he was also a member, and
the following facts were certified:
For the past fifteen years claimant has practiced his profession in this
city, and has up to within a year or a year and a half of this date
shown a vigor and power of endurance quite equal to the labor imposed
upon him by the popular demand for his services. About a year ago he
evinced symptoms of breaking down, cough, emaciation, and debility.
These results--"breaking down, cough, emaciation, and debility"--are
the natural effects of such an attack as the deceased himself reported,
though not made by him any ground of a claim for pension, and it seems
quite clear that his death in September, 1881, must be chargeable to the
same cause.
His widow, the beneficiary named in this bill, filed her claim for
pension December 5, 1881, based upon the ground that her husband's death
from consumption was due to the chronic diarrhea for which he was
pensioned. Upon such application the testimony of Dr. H.H. Atwater was
filed, to the effect that about 1879 he began to treat the deceased
regularly for pleuro-pneumonia, followed by abscesses and degeneration
of lung tissue, which finally resulted in death, and that these diseased
conditions were complicated with digestive affections, such as diarrhea,
dyspepsia, and indigestion.
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