# The Strange Case of William Henry Harrison **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 1999, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-case-of-william-henry-harrison/3638 "1999-10-01T20:58:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 1999, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-case-of-william-henry-harrison/3638/1 "1999-10-01T20:58:00Z")
We’ve all heard the story that WHR gave a 105-minute inaugural speech, in the cold, and as a result caught a cold which developed into pneumonia. Is that still the accepted story? You don’t catch a cold from being cold, and I would think it’s pretty rare that a cold causes pneumonia. (I say “causes pneumonia” because I’m under the impression that pneumonia is not specifically a disease, but a fluid build-up that might me caused by any number of reasons.) (And I don’t think the CIA, Mafia, Right Wing, Military-Industrial Complex, or the Cubans were behind it–I just wonder if the medical community might have reevaluated it in the intervening 150-odd years.) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 1999, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-case-of-william-henry-harrison/3638/2 "1999-10-01T21:15:00Z")
Harrison was 68 years old when he was inaugurated, and he didn’t wear a coat as he droned on and on for two hours. And he had been a medical student! At his age, in 1841, he would be quite susceptible to pneumonia, which at that time was one of the ten deadliest diseases in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 1999, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-case-of-william-henry-harrison/3638/3 "1999-10-01T21:32:00Z")
My nearest source (which is from that period) claims he got a “severe cold” which “grew worse, and he was attacked with a severe chill, followed by a fever. This again was followed by a bilious pleurisy,” whatever that is, “which, on the fourth of April, terminated his life.” He was President for exactly one month, and was sick every day of it. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 1999, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-case-of-william-henry-harrison/3638/4 "1999-10-03T06:41:00Z")
> [@](#): > > You don’t catch a cold from being cold,. . . I see MDs and the sort making such silly statements from time to time. Do you find yourself in an auto accident because the _ **other** _ car sought to be a Point X. . .or _ **you** _ sought to be there with _ **your** _ car? I don’t think anyone denies viruses are needed for a cold to start, but viruses are around _ **all** _ the time (outside of maybe Antarctica), and colds only start _ **once in awhile** _ – when something lowers your immunological resistance to them. One such something is a decrease in ambient temperature. So, what is the cause in such case, and what is the enabling condition? There’s no difference. MDs are just not very bright people. . .so what’s the excuse of the rest of us? Ray (Bullets don’t kill people; it’s those darn people putting themselves in front of bullets that do the job.) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 1999, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-case-of-william-henry-harrison/3638/5 "1999-10-03T10:23:00Z")
Who’s William Henry Harrison? * * * “So what you are telling me, Percy, is that something you have never seen is _slightly less blue_ than something else that you have never seen.” ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 1999, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-case-of-william-henry-harrison/3638/6 "1999-10-03T12:06:00Z")
William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of these United States. From Merriam Webster: Main Entry: pneu·mo·nia Pronunciation: nu-'mO-ny&, nyu- Function: noun Etymology: New Latin, from Greek, from pneumOn lung, alteration of pleumOn – more at PULMONARY Date: 1603 : a disease of the lungs characterized by inflammation and consolidation followed by resolution and caused by infection or irritants