By Ellis Margolin
Dr. Ellis Margolin was the pathologist at Springfield for several decades. When he retired, he left a farewell letter describing the state of things when he arrived and the state of things when he left, as well as people he worked with over the years, and the thousands of autopsies he conducted.
To buy the book, click here.
— Excerpt —
The morgue was in the Hubner basement alongside the elevator. A rusty iron table in the center is where I did the autopsies. It had no plumbing and no suction and no water. A sink along the wall was where the spigots for water were present and alongside the sink, I had to do the dissections. A tremendous refrigerator was present in the wall leading towards the elevator and two trays for bodies were present in this refrigerator. The door into this room and the windows had clear glass and anybody who wanted to could look into this room. I finally obtained some material of plastic nature that covered these windows.
In the laboratory, there were two men who did the work. One was called a technician, Eugene Cornell, who was an alcoholic whose hands shook all the time. He could not keep a pipette steady, and he was absent large parts of the day because of his drinking. The other person, Milton Norris, was called a technician trainee. He usually sat at the desk doing nothing.
The first week I was present I answered the phone, which was out in the rotunda, and was asked to give a report on a blood count that was sent down as an emergency five days previously. I asked the technicians about it, and I was told they did not have time yet to do it.
— End of Excerpt —
