Today’s Unqualified Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Prior to the development of modern forensic science procedures, New York City required no medical background or training for coroners, even though they were charged with determining the cause of death. The list of New York City coroners, from 1898 to 1915, included eight undertakers, seven politicians, six real estate dealers, two saloonkeepers, two plumbers, a lawyer, a printer, an auctioneer, a wood carver, a carpenter, a painter, a butcher, a marble cutter, a milkman, an insurance agent, a labor leader, and a musician. It also included 17 physicians, but these were men like Patrick Riordan, doctors who had lost their practice and turned to a political position. None of them were asked to pass a test in order to hold office, or exhibit any knowledge of the profession. As a result, death certificates were filled out with no effort at determining cause. Among the entries were “could be suicide or murder,” and “either assault or diabetes.” In one instance a coroner had attributed a death to “diabetes, tuberculosis or nervous indigestion.” A few death certificates simply read “act of God”.
Culled from: The Poisoner’s Handbook
If it was today, they would make it a multiple choice test question like “If a patient has died and is overwieght, with limbs that look as if the muscles in arms and legs have atrophied is the cause of death A.( diatetes, B.( tuberculosis, c.( nervous indigestion, d.( all of the above, e.( answer is not given.
If he got it wrong, we could blame all the teachers!Thanks Bill Gates and Eli Broad!
What, no baker or candlestick-maker? Slackers.
Looks like they didn’t last long on the job.
This one made me giggle. Danke!