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JEFFERSON'S CAUSE OF DEATH
> we know he died at home but from what? According to Willard Sterne Randall, in "Thomas Jefferson: A Life," page 588: "On New Year's Day, 1826, Jefferson wrote an Albermarle neighbor that he had been confined to his house for three weeks 'and indeed to my couch' by recurring bouts of diarrhea (he may have been suffering from colon cancer) as well as diabetes and a urinary tract infection... For his last five years, he had suffered chronic digestive and urinary problems." Needless to say, medical diagnosis was not at the level that it is today, and we cannot be certain exactly what was the cause of his death. It has been suggested that Jefferson may have had an amoebic infection caused by drinking the waters from a warm spring on his own property. In any case, it apparently was some kind of intestinal problem.