smith townson who is the d.c. health commissioner arrives at the train station. now, quick background. by this point in history, joseph lister had already written extensively on the need for sanitation and the danger of sepsis caused by germs and the need not to put germs into patients. but there are many in america who did not believe this. and we will come to this in a second particularly with the doctor who is going to be one of the lead figures in our story. dr. bliss. dr. townsend comes and decides the first thing to do is take the bullet out. bullets can cause you harm if they're moving. if they get into you and they haven't caused the harm, you might survive for a long time. he sticks his finger unwashed, into garfield and this is the beginning of bad things. garfield is in tremendous pain but is mostly concerned, how will his wife take this news? and so he permanently dictates a telegram to be sent to her, i'm okay, don't worry about this, come to washington when you feel better. at this point, robert todd lincoln makes an extremely well meaning but incredibly tragic mistake. and the mistake is, he calls for h