was mary todd lincoln's well- known depression due in part to a physical cause? physical cause? uys a little lamb. one of millions of orders on this company's servers. accessible by thousands of suppliers and employees globally. but with cyber threats on the rise, mary's data could be under attack. with the help of at&t, and security that senses and mitigates cyber threats, their critical data is safer than ever. giving them the agility to be open & secure. because no one knows & like at&t. jen stops working, but her aleve doesn't. hey mom! because aleve can last 4 hours longer than tylenol 8 hour. what will you do with your aleve hours? >> ninan: well, mary todd lincoln had a lot of tragedy in her life. she lost two young children, and of course, was sitting next to president lincoln when he was assassinated. all of that contributed to years of depression. but now medical experts believe that there was a physical cause for her mental struggles. here's dr. jon lapook. >> reporter: history has not been kind to mary todd lincoln. wife of our 16th president, she was a tempestuous, u

he puts forth a new theory about mary todd lincoln.behavior was caused by pernicious anemia. >> as a result, the person becomes b-12 deficient and that causes lots of problems and almost every organ of the body. >> reporter: it was a fatal illness until a treatment was discovered decades after her death. it can lead to symptoms exhibited by mary todd lincoln. pale skin, sore mouth, difficulty walking and swelling. >> the puffiness is not in a way that would occur with an accumulation of fat. >> reporter: it can be picked up with a simple bro blood test. >> she had a sick brain. and i think to have done as well as she did with the kind of handicaps that see had, i think that deserves admiration. >> reporter: dr. jon lapook, cbs news, new york. >>> and that's the news. for some of you, the news continues, for others, check back with us for the morning news and cbs this morning. i'm don dahler. ♪ >>> it's tuesday, july 19th, 2016. this is the "cbs morning news." >> you work hard for what you want in life. >> you work hard for what you wan

mary todd lincoln supported her husband's political goals but suffered from migraines and depression shington for her angry outbursts at white house gathering. now a modern diagnosis of her symptoms casts mrs. lincoln in a more forgiving light. >> reporter: history has not been kind to mary todd lincoln, wife of our 16th president. she was a tempestuous, unpredictable force, and her son ultimately had her committed. sally field's portrayal showed a fierce and sharp-tongued first lady. >> you think i'm ignorant. when have i ever been so easily bamboozled? >> reporter: this white area here is not her dress. it's her skin. >> reporter: but dr. john sotos says she was misunderstood and misdying noised. he puts fort a theory. >> it impairs the body's ability to absorb vielts minute b-12. and it causing ls lots of problems. >> reporter: the disease can lead to many of the symptoms exhibited by mary todd lincoln. a sore mouth, pale skin, difficulty walking and psychiatric problems and swelling. >> the puffiness is not in a way that would occur in a cumulation of fat. >> reporter: today the d

he puts forth a new theory about mary todd lincoln. erratic behavior was caused by a pernicious anemia. >> it is unable to absorb foods. >> it was a fatal illness until treatment was discovered. the disease can lead to many of the symptoms exhibited by mary todd lincoln. it can cause swelling. >> the puffiness would not accumulation of fat. >> reporter: today the disease can be picked up on a simple blood test and easily treated with b-12 supplements. she had a sick brain and was doing the best she could in a very complicated, relentlessly demanding environment. to done as well as she did with the kind of handicaps she had, i think that deserves our admiration. >> you know i have some patients, not that common, who have pernicious anemia. i said i'm about to use a word -- >> yeah. >> pernicious. wicked. a pernicious lie but it's not pernicious anymore. you can easily treat it. b-12 supplementation. >> it's out there. >> it's amazing to look back at history and see something like that. >> not so pernicious after all. >> i should say som

mary todd link conhad a lot of tragedy in her life. she lost two young children and of course was sitting next to president lincoln when he was assassinatedbut now medical expert believes there was physical cause for her mental struggles. here's dr. jon lapook. >> reporter: history has not been kind to mary todd link con. wife of our 16th president she was tempestuous unpredictable force and her son eventually had her committed. salie field's 2012 portrayal showed a fierce and sharp-tongued first lady. >> you think i'm ignorant. when have i ever been easily bamboozled. >> this white area here is not her dress it's her skin. >> dr. john sotos says the famously fiery first lady was not only misunderstood but misdiagnosed. sotos, a new theory, her behavior was caused by pernicious anemia. >> that impairs the bodies ability to -- they become b12 donate causes lots of problems in almost every organ. >> it was fatal illness until treatment was discovered decades after her death. the disease can lead to many of the symptoms exhibited by mary todd lincoln a sore mouth, pale skin, difficulty walking and psychiatric problems. it can also cause swel

there at the dresses designed by elizabeth hackley who was an african-american dress designer by mary todd lincoln and that's what made me look over here for the outfits. >> reporter: how does it feel to be betsy ross? >> i love it. >> reporter: the hands on interactive six-day tour brings the oval office to philadelphia and climb on board of an exact replica of president john f. kennedy's air force one, right down to the first lady's quarters and his bomber jacket. it's the donkeys versus the elephants for father and son eric and zuri of philadelphia. >> heading over to check out the air force one fuselage and looking forward to that as well as the oval office and getting a little flavor of what life is like as a president. >> since we're not delegates we can't go to the dnc and we wanted to be involved somehow. we're 18 and just registered to votes. >> reporter: it's where young voters are learning about the evolution of american politics and where democratic history is beginning to click. tiny young minds guessing how many knex bricks it took to build this liberty bill. a photo in the oval offi

and he was a friend of the family, he escorts mary todd lincoln to the inauguration in 1860. oln also met a lot of people while he was traveling around on the eighth circuit. one much the stores he would visit belonged to a man named henry rice. so apparently president lincoln liked henry rice at least enough to endorse general mcclellan's wish that rice be appointed a sutler. for those who don't know what that is, that's an important position, a patronage position that gives a person the opportunity to provide the military with goods and services and if you had those sutler buttons or coins that enabled you to do that, that's in a way like being the government press or something. in other words, you have a special in to selling to quite a large captive audience. and here i took this picture myself. this is the grave -- i was so happy to meet him, even though was so quiet -- mr. solvenstein. there is a lot of material on him. e had a shop in a place called athens, illinois. those of you from the east coast, i would like to educate you. i don't want you to make fools of yoursel

i know mary todd spoke french. did lincoln ever speak french? >> no, he didn't. an excellent question. because he knew a number of the germans, they encouraged him to sit in on a class to learn the german language. so he learned a couple of three, four words and a phrase. what he liked to say when he would speak to somebody that he was fluent in german, most of the people, the accounts that i read of people with him said he liked to tell stories more than he liked the listen and learn german. that's the closest he ever came to being bilingual. >> did he have any pro found thoughts about native americans? >> that's a pro found question. i was going to include it in my book. then i thought, well, okay. that really broadens the topic. because native-americans are not immigrants. and now you're talking about that fine line between race and ethnicity. it depends on who you ask. there are some who will tell you the abraham lincoln was as prejudiced toward indians as any westerner would have been and participated in the execution of a number of indians in minnesota. on

i know mary todd spoke french. did lincoln ever speak french? >> no, he didn't. but it's an excellent question. because he knew a number of the germans, they encouraged him to sit in on a class to learn the german language. so he learned a couple of three, four words and a phrase. what he liked to say when he would speak to somebody that he was fluent in german, most of the people, the accounts that i read of people with him said he liked to tell stories more than he liked the listen and learn german. that's the closest he ever came to being bilingual. yes, sir? >> did he have any profound thoughts about native americans? >> that's a profound question. i was going to include it in my book. then i thought, well, okay. that really broadens the topic. because native-americans are not immigrants. and now you're talking about that fine line between race and ethnicity. it depends on who you ask. there are some who will tell you the abraham lincoln was as prejudiced towards indians as any westerner would have been and participated in the execution of a number of indians

today advertisements sparred in the language to communicate to the immigrants -- i know mary todd spoke french. did lincoln ever speak french? >> no, he didn't. that's an excellent question. because he knew a number of the germans, they actually encouraged him to sit in on a class to learn the german language. lincoln learned three or four word and a phrase. what he liked to say when he would speak to somebody that he was fluent in german, most of the accounts i read who were with him said he liked to tell stories more than he liked to listen and german. that's the closest he ever came to being bilingual. >> did lincoln have any platforms or profound thoughts about native americans? >> you know, that's a superquestion. when i started my book five or six years ago, i was going to include them. then i thought, wow, okay, that broadens the topic because native americans are not immigrants, and now you're talking about a fine line between race and ethnicity. it depends on who you ask. there are some people who will tell you that abraham lincoln was as prejudice toward indians as any westerner would have been.