Architect Proposed Resurrecting Washington

William Thornton, the architect of the U.S. Capitol, was also a physician and inventor. When George Washington fell ill in December 1799, Thornton rushed to Mount Vernon but arrived after Washington had already died. Thornton then proposed a bizarre plan to "resurrect" the president by warming his body, inflating his lungs with a bellows, and infusing lamb's blood into his veins. Washington's family declined the idea.

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