Memoirs of an editor : fifty years of American journalism / Edward P. Mitchell.

PROCESSION TIROUGH THE WHITE HOUSE 319
MAr. Blaine's case to about twenty prominent physicians
and to obtain from them opinions as to what such an
exhibit indicated. They all concurred, though some of
them pronounced the publication a shameful proceeding.
For instance, Doctor Biggs: "Chronic Bright's disease in
an advanced stage. There is no question of what the fate
of the patient will be"; Doctor Valentine Mott: "It
seems like an impossibility that a man could be in the
state indicated and live." The hideous symposium was
continued in a page full of cabled interviews, on Bright's
disease in general, with physicians and professors of medicine in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Lyons, and Rome.
"If Mr. Blaine is Indeed a Sufferer," said the headlines,
"Their Opinions Will Be of Great Value in Behalf of the
Famous Statesman."
Mr. Blaine was at Bar Harbor and in his indignation
at the perpetrator of this journalistic outrage he appealed
to Mr. Dana on July 29, 1891:
You do not know [he wrote] how infamous the - is. The
whole of the "Result of Analysis" which it gives is false and
forged. I have never had a single return which did not say:
"No sugar, no albumen, no casts," and I have had them only
from authority of the highest character.
I have not the slightest touch of Bright's disease.
Mr. Dana asked me to go down to Mount Desert, not
specially with regard to the state of Mr. Blaine's health,
but to see how freely he would talk about the general
political situation and the prospects of the coming campaign. I went to my last interview with that most interesting man accredited by the note here subjoined.

The Sun, New York, August 3, 1891.
DEAR MR. BLAINE: The bearer of this note, Mr. Edward P.
Mitchell, is my ne-ar assistant and most confidential friend. He
can be relied upon in every way, and trusted with anything.
Yours sincerely, C.A. DANA.