Today’s unqualified yet truly fucked up fact!

I bet you didn't know this, but prior to the development of modern forensic science procedures (say right around the 1940s or so), The United States required no medical background or training for county or state coroners, even though they were charged with determining the cause of death.

For instance, A list of New York City coroners, from 1898 to 1915, included eight undertakers, seven politicians, six real estate dealers, two saloon keepers, 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”.

I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted my neighborhood Milkman being the leading authority telling my family how I ultimately met my demise... Also, what exactly classifies a "nervous indigestion", and how does one die from it? Not to mention, aren't all deaths ultimately considered "Acts of God"?