One hundred and fifty years after the death of James Fenimore Cooper, a local historian and doctor have joined forces to present material about the author's final illness.

Hugh MacDougall, founder and president of the James Fenimore Cooper Society, compiled a list of Cooper's health complaints as recorded in letters to friends and family. He gave this report to Dr. David Svahn, who arranged to host a conference, "Torpid Liver and Dandelion Tonic," at Bassett Hospital this past Monday at noon.

Svahn, who said he was pleased with the attendance, spoke about health complaints penned by Cooper.

Cooper consistently alluded to a chronic digestive problem beginning decades prior to his death in 1851.

After the conference, while talking with Svahn and MacDougall, Cooper's great great grandson Henry S.F. Cooper said that this complaint began in the 1820's, when Cooper was "under a lot of stress."

"Cooper didn't start writing until he was thirty-one years old," MacDougall added. "By then his brothers had died all around him and he was deeply in debt."

Svahn said during the conference that Cooper's symptoms did not point to any obvious ailment, but that he suspected congestive cardiomyopathy.

"It's clear that he suffered from an organic illness at the end of his life," Svahn said later, "but he was also a bit of a hypochondriac."

Svahn talked about the language of nineteenth century medicine, including the evolution from "cures" like leeches and lances to dandelion tonics and blue pills containing mercury. These blue pills, Svahn said, were used by such notables as Abraham Lincoln, who wisely chose to stop the practice when he became president, and "our man, James Fenimore Cooper."

The blue pills, meant to "purge morbid excitement from the brain," among other things, contain nine thousand times the allowable dosage of today's standards, Svahn said.

"We can laugh at them," he said when the audience chuckled, "but who knows what they'll say about us one hundred and fifty years from now."

Even George Washington was "killed by bleeding," when he had strep throat and didn't respond to the initial treatment, Svahn said.

Several other doctors offered opinions about Cooper's demise. Anemia and diabetes were mentioned as possibilities, but no definitive diagnosis was set in stone.

Dr. Chris Kjolhede said it's difficult to determine a diagnosis based on a patient's medical history. "A lot of different things happen to people over time, and they aren't always related."

Cooper said he has a family tree on which his grandfather jotted down cirrhosis as the cause of the famous author's death. MacDougall and Cooper agreed that there was no evidence of alcohol abuse by the author, and that his intake was moderate by the standards of his day.

MacDougall spoke about the effects of illness on the author's work. Evidence indicates Cooper's head remained clear until the end. His final work was a history book about New York City, which was destroyed at the publisher's. All that remains is an introduction, in which Cooper related his opinions about the city's bright future as the world's center of commerce and trade.

"Nobody thinks of the towns of Manhattan as belonging to New York state," MacDougall read from the introduction, "but to the United States."

Svahn said that the community is still blessed to have members of the Cooper family "still creative, among us."

"The poignancy of Cooper's remarks about New York given what just happened..." Svahn said, trailing off in an emotional moment.