PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT
PETITION,
from Chas. M. Higgins
of Brooklyn, N. Y.
a citizen of the United States
TO
The President of the United States
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy
Washington, D. C.
Mr. President:
American History, as you well know, tells us that our first President, the illustrious George Washington, died in 1799 as the result of a medical malpractice common at that time, viz., the barbarous and dangerous practice of indiscriminate bleeding to cure disease. While suffering from an attack of acute sore throat or laryngitis, the patient was so weakened by the great loss of vital fluid in repeated bleeding operations that he was not able to endure this loss and overcome also the effects of the disease. Our great Washington thus gave up his glorious life—glorious in the establishment of American Liberty and the principles of Inalienable Natural Rights of the Individual as a basis for all Government—on the altar of medical barbarism and malpractice.