The subtitle is “Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York”. What I did not expect was for a book with that subtitle to begin with a discussion of the Periodic Table of Elements. But it all fits together as you go through the book. In the early Twentieth Century, scientists and inventors were discovering and inventing new things all the time. Sometimes, it took them a while to realize that some of these new things were not only useful, but potentially deadly, as well.
The book focuses on the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City, specifically two of the scientists who worked there. They were two of the people who not only determined that some things were not healthy for people, at least in large amounts, but also how to tell if one of these substances was responsible for someone’s death, sometimes accidental, sometimes by suicide, and sometimes by murder. And once they determined which substance was to blame, sometimes they had to also decide whether or not someone needed to be charged for murder. They didn’t always get it right, and, at least early on, juries didn’t always believe them.
This is not exactly a book about a mystery. A number of cases are discussed, but there is not a lot of suspense. In addition to the accidental/suicide/murder determination, they also helped look into the industrial poisoning of the “Radium Girls”; argued against using certain substances for pest control; and railed against the government putting additional poisons into the already poisonous wood alcohol that many people tried to drink during Prohibition. While the focus is on New York, the work these scientists did was influential throughout the country.
If this was your family, how would you research them? Most of our ancestors probably did not die as a result of murder; age and disease are much more common causes. Death certificates were not routinely issued until the beginning the twentieth century, and sometimes the cause of death, once you manage to interpret the doctor’s handwriting, is confusing. There is a website to help with that! If you go to http://www.wolfbane.com/icd/index.html you will find links to lists from the International Classification of Diseases by year. Find the year right before the death certificate you are researching, and you will find a link to numerical codes used for that time period. For example, in 1938, diseases listed include typhoid, leprosy, and gout. They also have a few codes for suicide and homicide.