upyrica:

“The city required no medical background for coroners, even though they were charged with determining cause of death. […] None of them were asked to pass a test in order to hold office, or exhibit any knowledge of the profession.
As a result, Wallstein found, death certificated 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 the coroner had attributed a death to “diabetes, tuberculosis or nervous indigestion”. A few death certificates simply read “act of God”. – The Poisoner’s Handbook. Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.