The Post-Mortem on Czolgosz

     FEW public events of recent years have raised so many points of intense interest for the medical profession as the assassination of the late President of the United States. Physicians and surgeons were equally interested in watching the course of events after the dastardly deed had been perpetrated. Alienists and medical jurists closely followed the details of the evidence as far as their particular branches were concerned in the trial which followed, and pathologists were unfortunately not uninterested onlookers; but interesting to all as are the details of the trial where they enable an estimate to be formed of the state of mind of the assassin, still more valuable, from a scientific standpoint, are the details of the post-mortem examination made on the body of the miserable Czolgosz. From a fairly complete account given by Dr. Spitzka, of New York, we have measurements of the head and body, with pictures of the cast of the head and sketches of the convolutions very carefully described. Needless to say the reporter keeps constantly in view the Polish parentage of the assassin, in so far as the notable features found corresponded with what was to be expected in a member of the Polish race. No doubt many opinions will be expressed on the report, especially on that portion which refers to the brain. We notice that beyond giving its weight no illustration or description is given in this official report of the condition of the cerebellum. The author observes that “So far as our knowledge of the correlation of brain-structure and brain-function extends, nothing has been found in the brain of this assassin that would condone his crime for the reason of mental disease due to intrinsic cerebral defect or distortion.”