s of the action."

"The President still improving, but great dangers are yet
to come, and nothing has been found of the ball, which
is supposed to have stayed in the liver because, were it
anywhere else, symptoms of irritation by its presence would
have been shown."

"July 9. This is Saturday evening. Met Major Powell at
the Cosmos Club, who told me that they would like to have
me look at the air-cooling projects at the White House.
Published statement that the physicians desired some way to
cool the air of the President's room had brought a crowd of
projects and machines of all kinds. Among other things,
a Mr. Dorsey had got from New York an air compressor such
as is used in the Virginia mines for transferring power,
and was erecting machinery enough for a steamship at the
east end of the house in order to run it."

Dr. Woodward was a surgeon of the army, who had been on duty at
Washington since the civil war, in charge of the Army Medical Museum.
Among his varied works here, that in micro-photography, in which
he was a pioneer, gave him a wide reputation. His high standing
led to his being selected as one of the President's physicians.
To him I wrote a note, offering to be of any use I could in the
matter of cooling the air of the President's chamber. He promptly
replied with a request to visit the place, and see what was being
done and what suggestions I could make. Mr. Dorsey's engine at the
east end was dispensed with after a long discussion, owing to the
noise it would make and the amount of work necessary to its final
installation and operation.

Among the problems with which the surgeons had to wrestle was that
of locating the ball. The question occurred to me whether it was
not possible to do so by the influence produced by the action of
a metallic conductor in retarding the motion of a rapidly revolving
magnet, but the effect would be so small, and the apparatus to be made
so delicate, that I was very doubtful about the matter. If there
was any one able to take hold of the project successfully, I knew
it would be Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
When I approached him on the subject, he suggested that the idea
of locating the ball had also occurred to him, and that he thought
the best apparatus for the purpose was a telephonic one which had
been recently developed by Mr. Hughes. As there could be no doubt
of the superiority of his project, I dropped mine, and