The "terrific headache" President Roosevelt felt before he died was the result of a burst of blood, flooding his brain cells, paralyzing and killing him.
Cerebral hemorrhage (also called "a stroke" of apoplexy) rarely strikes a person with normal, healthy arteries; a normal blood vessel can stand 14 times the ordinary blood pressure without bursting. The artery that burst in the President's head was presumably hardened and thickened by arteriosclerosis, which may be caused by old age, infection, overwork, worry, overexertion. A mere sneeze may raise blood pressure enough to rupture such a vessel.
The hemorrhage was a big one and Mr. Roosevelt...
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