In early February, the boy contracted a fever which laid him low and caused his mind to wander so badly that he became delirious. It is not certain exactly what the illness was; it may have been typhoid, smallpox, or tuberculosis. Some suspected that the White House basement promoted disease. The cellar was, according to Stoddard, “perennially overrun with rats, mildew and foul smells” and probably caused “the well-known mortality in the upper part of the building.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃