Hair of President Jackson reveals his poor health
Andrew Jackson, the USA’s seventh president, was one of the nations sickest men to hold that high office, according to various historical accounts. New research, chemically analyzing two samples of Jackson’s hair dated 1815 and 1839, now confirms that elevated levels of mercury and lead in the statesman’s system were largely responsible for his many years of poor health and erratic behavior.
The results of a recent study, headed by Ludwig Deppisch, MD, a professor of pathology at Northeastern Ohio University’s College of Medicine, proves that sugar of lead, and calomel (a compound of mercury and chlorine) – both commonly found in 19th century “snake oil” elixirs – were the major cause of the president’s digestive ailments, excessive salivation, headaches, hand tremors, dysentery and loss of teeth. Jackson also suffered additional exposure to lead from two bullets lodged in his body – one near his heart and one in his shoulder – from disputes settled with pistol duels. However, Dr. Deppisch’s study did not find the lead and mercury levels in Jackson’s hair to be sufficiently high enough to cause his death, as some historians have suggested.
Tony Guzzi, assistant curator at The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home in Nashville, Tennessee said, “We have several samples of Jackson’s hair. Admirers often requested a lock, and he would just cut one off and send it to them.” An account left by one person who visited the retired statesman at his home in 1844 relates, “ . . . we were each given a lock of Jackson’s hair, which we received with eagerness, and it will be kept as a rich legacy by each of us.” Over the years, some of the locks of hair were returned to The Hermitage by descendents of the original recipients.
The Hermitage provided two hair samples for testing with the Department of Environmental and Toxicologic Pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. The first sample was from 1815, the year of Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans, the second was from 1839, toward the end of Jackson’s life — two periods when Jackson was taking a lot of medicine.
It was Dr. Deppisch’s task to interpret the test results and compare them to written historical accounts. “The 1815 hair sample showed particularly elevated lead levels,” says Dr. Deppisch. “One of Jackson’s doctors liked to give sugar of lead to both Andrew and his wife Rachel. They not only ingested it, but used it to bathe their skin and eyes.” Jackson also took massive amounts of calomel as a purgative – a treatment now regarded as homicidal.
The 1839 hair sample shows that lead levels had dropped, perhaps indicating Jackson’s realization that some of the medicines were not helping. But Jackson’s well-documented, unpredictable behavior was almost certainly due to mercury poisoning. Historians record his “thundering and haranguing,” “pacing and ranting” — at one moment in a towering rage, in the next moment laughing about the outburst.
“Jackson did act bizarrely on occasion,” says Dr. Deppisch, “but what is truly amazing, is that for all his illnesses and the problems caused by medicines, Andrew Jackson lived a long life.” He died at the age of 78, on June 8, 1845, probably of chronic renal failure.
home
subscribe
advertise
about us
