Medical study: Lincoln probably had smallpox at time of Gettysburg Address
The researchers suggest Lincoln's physicians downplayed the severity of his illness in an effort to reassure the public that their president was not dying...
Though some historians recognize that Lincoln was ill following his Gettysburg speech in 1863, they implicate a mild and non-lethal form of smallpox that occurs in people who have been immunized against the disease.
The finding, published in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Biography, suggests future writings on the 16th president should include the nature and gravity of "Lincoln's Gettysburg Illness."...
Armond Goldman and Frank Schmalstieg, both of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, reviewed the symptoms of Lincoln's illness cited in various sources. Then they compared this clinical profile with non-smallpox diseases, including monkeypox, chickenpox and herpes simplex type 1 infections, which could mimic smallpox...
Goldman and Schmalstieg found it was improbable Lincoln suffered from a disease other than smallpox...
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