New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-14

eide ,,,ust be carried on with rpunty IN We"
York City. And what about the girls ana
women who die annually from criminal opera
tions? One looks in vain Tor single case
Of the kind in Maintains list OF homiciaes
for 1914 Yet deaths OF this sort are more
truly hon,icides than those attributed TO GRIM
;nal negligence. Who is there who belieVes
that not a woman in all OF Manhattan oled
last wear as the result OF a criminal operation!
The fact is abortons, often resulting IN death,
are performed with the same impunity thar
attrrds irfantci1c. but not so much through
csrclessness rs through corruption IN the
Coroner's Office
II is really surprising, is it not, that in the
circumstances Manhattan should possess one
enlnently capable, conscientious and honest
Corcners physician? He exists in the person
of DR.. Otto H. Schultze2 DR.. Schultz is also
professor OF medico-legal pathology and as
sistant professor OF pathological anatomy at
the Cornell University Medical School, He
is the particular aversion OF the Coroners and
of the other Coroners' physicians. Persecu-
ton has been his lot throughout most OF the
fourteen years of his incumbency, just as it is
often the portion of an honest and conscien-
tious member OF the police force. Dr. Schultze
and the system" are of necessity antipathetic.
"Such disciplinary power as the Manhattan
Board OF Coroners possesses over physicians,
SAYS Commissioner Wallstein, has been used
not to improve the character of the medical
work, but rather to harass and embarrass the
most competent of all their physicians CDR.
Schultze). Despite more serious charges
otbe nbuS;capS which have been
made or could have been made, this board has
seen At to discipline DR.. Schultze for alleged
delay in viewing body and for alleged in
subordination to the chief clerk One is led
to the conclusion that the Coroners of the
Borough of Manhattan resent the existence Of
medical efficiency rather than its opposite"
Dr. Schultze has been Coroner's physician
for fourteen years-during 1896 and 1897 and
from December, 1902, to date His troubles
with coroners began in the summer of 1902,
shortly before he became a Coroners phys-
clan for the second time, when he was called
in t. examine Coroners case as representa-
tive of District Attorney Jeromes homicide
bureau.
A motorman in the city, native of Sweden,
had sent back to his old home for his niece,
WHoHi HC SidiiilSu WiSu oHC dt SiiiS
Island and took home with him. Subsequently
his neighbors didn't see him for several days,
and becoming suspicious notified the police
The police broke into his fat and found him
sitting in his kitchen counting over his money
He talked incoherently, repeating that some
one had robbed him. In an adjoining bedroom
stretched out on the bed, they found the body
of his niece, already dscolored from decompo-
sition. They asked him if the body was that
of his niece, and he told them no, it was
niger"
The Coroner's Office, without hesitation or
the slightest attempt at proper examination,
put the case down as one OF rape-murder. The
body was sent to the Morgle, where DR..
Schultze, with the aid of the spectroscope and
a chemical reagent, discovered the girl had
died from gas poisoning and that there was no
evidence whatever Of criminal assault. Fur
thermore, it was determined that the motor
mans rrationality was due to the same cause,
gas poisoning. The motorman escaped there
fore, trial which would probably have l3nded
him in the death house in Sing Sing for a
crime of which he was entirely innocent.
But Coroner Gustave Scholer, whose case
tnlS Wal, pIOlOuUOly IcSCHtcQ SCHultZc
interference, and not long afterward, when DR..
Schultze had become Coroner's physician
again, Scholer and DR.. Timothy D. Leblanc, an
other Coroners physician, jumped into a car
riage and tried to beat DR.. Schultze to case
to which the latter had been assigned, their
object being to prefer charge of neglect of
duty against him. They failed to reach the
place ahead of him, but the charge was en-
tered against him, nevertheless, and he was
called upon to defend himself before meet
ing of the Board of Coroners. He consulted
the District Attorneys Office and was advised
to present himself. He did So The full board
was in attendance, including Coroner Moses
J. Jackson. But they had no sooner launched
upon consideration of the charge against Dr.
Schultze when there appeared in their midst
thickset gentleman representing the District
Attorney, who walked up to Coroner Jackson
to inform him that he had just been indicted
for bribery and might consider himze elf under
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