George Frederick Shrady Sr. to the profession and the public, in behalf of the staff, touching the results of the autopsy. He took part in the autopsy on the body of the assassin Guiteau, and aided materially in settling several points that had been raised as to the sanity of Guiteau when he shot President Garfield. In 1890, when Kemmler was electrocuted, the first murderer to receive capital punishment by this method, Dr. Shrady was one of the medical experts appointed to witness the execution. His observations led him to condemn electrocution unqualifiedly. Dr. Shrady's activities were great and varied. He was visiting surgeon
1880 United States presidential election for months, eventually declining to return either man to the Senate. Before that result was known, however, tragedy struck as Charles Guiteau, a mentally unstable man disappointed at being unable to secure a patronage appointment, shot Garfield on July 2, 1881. Garfield lingered for two-and-a-half months before dying on September 19, 1881. Vice President Chester A. Arthur, the New York Stalwart, was sworn in as president that night. Garfield's murder by a spoilsman inspired the nation to reform the civil service—and Arthur, erstwhile member of the Conkling machine, joined the cause. In 1883, a bipartisan majority in Congress passed the