The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-10

cludcs Candidates for the office have
been nominated "to balance the ticket"
to represent a particular race, relig-
ION, political faction or part of the
city. Coroner Ernest c. Wagner OF
Brooklyn, who used to be contractor,
said frankly tina. he was named merely
to balance the ticket and added that
that was no way To choose a Coroner.
The office is pronounced an absurd
, impossihlity. \ man is expected to
have expert medical training. To lie a
good lawyer and to make good mag
! istrate: for the Coroner must know
criminal law and the legal side of med-
cine and must act as magistrate m
the COrOncr'S court. Obviously no one
man is likely To qualify i'm all these
respects.
, The tnr"ncrs' physicians have been
chosen from what Mr. Wailstcin calls
| the ranks Of medical mediocrity."
! Most of them have none OF the highly
specialized pathological training that
their work In determining causes Of
death demands. In tes;ifyiug they fire.
quently admitted mistakes: sim more
often they were unable to tell on what
premises they had arrived at a gwen
! cause of death.
The last touch Of absurdity was the
revelation that with nearly all Of them
there are four faVOrite causes of death
(which Commissioner Wallsten saws.
! without the shadow of reason they
| are in the habit of assigning in cases
| of doubi.' These four standbys are
| chronic nephritis, endoCarditis. convul-
sions Gin the cases of infants) and ar
| terio-sclerosis
| The existence Of endOCard.tis cannot
| be determined with certainty unless an
| autopsy is made, Yet without such an
| examination 1t was generally assigned
| as the cause of death Commissions are
| by common agreement of medical au-
| thOrlties never cause Of death, onIy
! a symptom. In children they may
| mean anything from a natural dea; h
| to stryChnine poisoning or other crime.
Commissioner Walstein. adopting the
opinion Of experts Of the Health De-
partment, remarks: so far as the ac-
tivty of the Coroners Office in New
York city is concerned infanticide and
skilful poisoning can be carried on al
most with Impunty"
| The report charges that plain indiCa-
tions of graft and II protected crime
were revealed. As to graft: The testi-
| mOny shows clearly that certain Coro-
ners have favored certain undertakers
When Siegfried Hayman shot himself
| dead at the city Club on a summer
night OF 1871 an undertaken arrived
with the Coroner. When the dead
mans family expressed the wish that
the undertaken Of Temple Emanu- FL
should take charge the Coroner said
that the body must go to the Morgue
unless the undertaken with him took
charge. go this undertaken on the spot
took the body. later turning 1t over Ia
the undertaken whom the family had
selected and sending the family a bill
for $3.50. which was paid under protest
This same undertaker's automobile
ran down a clergyman from Ontario
The clergyman died. The undertaken
was suhppnaed as the chauffeur" and
was allowed to describe himself at the
inquest az chauffeur. The object
thinks Commissioner Wallstcin, was
plainly to lead the dead Clcrgyman'S
far away family 10 think the undertaken
a motor car driver without means from
whom nothing could probably be re-
covered in an action for damages. The
COroncr's jury acquitted this under
taker Of blame for the death.
This same undertaken, in the sam,
case, wrote 10 an insurance company
that its, officials ought to see one wit
ness Of the accident who appeared un.
friendly" At the inquest this witness
was not called, neither was another
witness whose name the police fur
nished.
\ Coroners physician accused 10y
two sons of dead Christian Scentis
Of accepting from them a present" o
500 told Mr.. Wallstein with a laugh
81 may have borrowed money from un
Continued on Last Pa1e