Edward Anthony Spitzka

Infobox Scientist
name = Edward Anthony Spitzka
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birth_date = June 17, 1876
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death_date = September 4, 1922
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nationality =United States
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field = anatomist
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known_for = Leon Czolgosz's brain autopsy
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Edward Anthony Spitzka (June 17, 1876 – September 4, 1922) was a American anatomist who autopsied (29 Oct 1901) Leon Czolgosz's brain, the assassin of president William McKinley.

Although four American Presidents have been assassinated (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy), only the assassins of James A. Garfield (Charles Julius Guiteau) and William McKinley (Leon Franz Czolgosz) were tried, convicted, and executed for their crime. In 1882, his father, Edward Charles Spitzka, a young New York neurologist with a growing reputation as an alienist, testified at the trial of Guiteau. He was the only expert witness who was asked, based on his personal examination of the prisoner, a direct question concerning the mental state of Guiteau. Spitzka maintained the unpopular view that Guiteau was insane. In spite of aggressive and spirited testimony on Spitzka's part, Guiteau was convicted and hanged. However, even before the execution it was acknowledged, by some experts, that Spitzka was undoubtedly right.

About 20 years later, in 1901, Spitzka was invited to conduct the autopsy on Czologsz, the assassin of McKinley. At the time Spitzka the younger, who had just published a detailed series of papers on the human brain, was in the fourth year of his medical training. It was an unusual series of fortuitous events that presumably led to Edward A. Spitzka conducting the autopsy on the assassin of the President of the United States while still a medical student. This, in light of the fact that other experts were available.

Each Spitzka went on to a career of note and each made a number of contributions in their respective fields. It is however, their participation in the 'neurology', as broadly defined, of the assassins of Presidents Garfield and McKinley that remains unique in neuroscience history. Not only were father and son participants in these important events, but these were the only times that assassins of US Presidents were tried and executed. [*cite journal
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last=Haines
first=D E
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year=|month=
title=Spitzka and Spitzka on the brains of the assassins of presidents
journal=Journal of the history of the neurosciences
volume=4
issue=3-4
pages=236-66
publisher= |location = NETHERLANDS| issn = 0964-704X| pmid = 11619027
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References

Publications

*Citation
id = PMID:17819126
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17819126
last=Spitzka
first=
publication-date=1881 Jun 25
year=1881
title=NOTE IN REGARD TO "PRIMITIVE DESIRES."
volume=2
issue=53
periodical=Science
pages=302
doi = 10.1126/science.os-2.53.302
*Citation
id = PMID:17741739
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17741739
last=Spitzka
first=
publication-date=1881 May 28
year=1881
title=FURTHER NOTES ON THE BRAIN OF THE SAUROPSIDA.
volume=2
issue=49
periodical=Science
pages=254
doi = 10.1126/science.os-2.49.254
*Citation
id = PMID:17732882
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17732882
last=Spitzka
first=
publication-date=1881 Apr 23
year=1881
title=NOTE ON THE SENSORY TRACT OF THE BRAIN.
volume=2
issue=44
periodical=Science
pages=188
doi = 10.1126/science.os-2.44.188
*Citation
id = PMID:17771494
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17771494
last=Spitzka
first=
publication-date=1881 Feb 19
year=1881
title=FURTHER NOTES ON THE BRAIN OF THE IGUANA AND OTHER SAUROPSIDAe.
volume=2
issue=35
periodical=Science
pages=75-76
doi = 10.1126/science.os-2.35.75
*Citation
id = PMID:17756922
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17756922
last=Spitzka
first=
publication-date=1880 Nov 20
year=1880
title=CONTRIBUTIONS TO ENCEPHALIC ANATOMY. --THE OBJECTS AND METHODS OF A STUDY OF THE ICHTHYOPSIDEAN BRAIN.
volume=1
issue=22
periodical=Science
pages=251-254
doi = 10.1126/science.os-1.22.251
*Citation
id = PMID:17806833
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17806833
last=Spitzka
first=
publication-date=1880 Aug 7
year=1880
title=CONTRIBUTIONS TO ENCEPHALIC ANATOMY.
volume=1
issue=7
periodical=Science
pages=73-74
doi = 10.1126/science.os-1.7.73
*Citation
id = PMID:17836159
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17836159
last=Spitzka
first=
publication-date=1880 Jul 10
year=1880
title=A REMARKABLE PECULIARITY OF AN ANTHROPOID BRAIN.
volume=1
issue=3
periodical=Science
pages=25
doi = 10.1126/science.os-1.3.25