ntained near its surface
a small abscess about one-third of an inch in diameter.

In reviewing the history of the case in connection with the autopsy it
is quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, and especially
the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebrae, furnish a sufficient
explanation of the septic condition which existed.

D.W. BLISS.
J.K. BARNES.
J.J. WOODWARD.
ROBERT REYBURN.
FRANK H. HAMILTON.
D. HAYES AGNEW.
ANDREW H. SMITH.
D.S. LAMB.

[September 20, 1881.]

FORMAL OATH OF OFFICE ADMINISTERED TO PRESIDENT ARTHUR.

President Chester A. Arthur took the formal oath of office as President
of the United States in the room of the Vice-President, in the Capitol,
Thursday, September 22, 1881, at 12.10 o'clock p.m. Chief Justice
Morrison R. Waite administered the oath prescribed by the Constitution
in the presence of the members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the
Supreme Court, ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes, General W.T. Sherman, and
a number of Senators and Representatives.

[For Inaugural Address of President Arthur see pp. 33-34.]

ACTION OF CONGRESS.

President Arthur, in his first annual message to the first session of
the Forty-seventh Congress, thus announced the death of his predecessor:

An appalling calamity has befallen the American people since their
chosen representatives last met in the halls where you are now
assembled. We might else recall with unalloyed content the rare
prosperity with which throughout the year the nation has been
blessed. Its harvests have been plenteous; its varied industries
have thriven; the health of its people has been preserved; it has
maintained with foreign governments the undisturbed relations of
amity and peace. For these manifestations of His favor we owe to Him
who holds our destiny in His hands the tribute of our grateful
devotion.

To that mysterious exercise of His will which has taken from us the
loved and illustrious citizen who was but lately the head of the
nation we bow in sorrow and submission.

The memory of his exalted character, of his noble achievements, and
of his patriotic life will be treasured forever as a sacred
possession of the whole people.

The announcement of his death drew from foreign governments and
peoples tributes of sympathy and sorrow which history will record as
signal tokens of the kinship of nations and the federation of