Charles Norris (medical examiner)
| Charles Norris | |
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| 1st Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York | |
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In office 1918–1935 |
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| Preceded by | Patrick D. Riordan (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Thomas A. Gonzales |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 4, 1867 Hoboken, New Jersey |
| Died | September 11, 1935 (age 67) Manhattan, New York City |
| Cause of death | Heart failure |
| Nationality | American |
| Parents | Joseph Parker Norris Frances Stevens |
Charles Norris (December 4, 1867 - September 11, 1935) was New York's first appointed chief medical examiner (1918–1935) and pioneer of forensic toxicology in America.
Norris was born on December 4, 1867. He was first educated at Cutler's Private School in Manhattan, later entering Yale University and earning a bachelor of philosophy with emphasis on science. He then went to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, earning a doctorate in medicine in 1892. After studying for four years in Europe, he returned to New York, and in 1904 became the laboratory director at Bellevue and Allied Hospitals.
In 1917, Norris, applying for the job of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, took a civil service examination and passed. Mayor John F. Hylan immediately took legal action against him, claiming that in performing autopsies as part of the examination he had violated the law. Fortunately for Norris, the state government took notice and intervened, forcing Hylan to appoint Norris chief medical examiner.
Norris immediately set about improving his department. After hiring several distinguished scientists and chemists, including Alexander Gettler, he was forced, due to the lack of any supplies, to buy them all out of his own money. Other problems included the possibility of his workers being drafted to serve in the army (which he solved by writing to Hylan), and the low salaries of his workers, which averaged less than $4,000 a year (approximately $64,000 today).
In 1924, Norris was called in to investigate the mysterious insanity and deaths of workers in a plant that made tetraethyllead. It was mostly made in Standard Oil's plant at the Bayway Refinery in New Jersey. TEL was compounded in a small red brick building which was soon nicknamed the "looney gas building", due to the insanity of the workers there. Although Standard Oil had tried to deny that the deaths were due to tetraethyllead, New Jersey ordered the plant shut down. Although a federal investigation, by chemical industry scientists, responded to the concerns by recommending certain safety measures be adopted by production workers, it concluded that the risk posed to the public was low and the plant resumed production soon afterwards. It was not until 1978 that the leaded gasoline was banned.
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