Carlos Frederick MacDonald,

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

(August 29, 1845 – May 29, 1926) was a psychiatrist, and the chairman of the New York State Commission in Lunacy from 1880 to 1896. He was involved in the design of the first

electric chair An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...

and examined

Leon F. Czolgosz Leon Frank Czolgosz ( , ; May 5, 1873 – October 29, 1901) was an American laborer and anarchist who assassinated President William McKinley on September 6, 1901, in Buffalo, New York. The president died on September 14 after his wound became ...

, pronouncing him sane enough to be executed in the electric chair after the assassination of President

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

in 1901. He was President of the American Psychiatric Association from 1913 to 1914. He was an expert witness at the trials of

Harry Thaw Harry Kendall Thaw (February 12, 1871 – February 22, 1947) was the son of American coal and railroad baron William Thaw Sr.. Heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune, the younger Thaw is most notable for murdering the renowned architect Sta ...

and Harrison W. Noel.

Biography

MacDonald was born in

Niles, Ohio Niles is a city in southern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, situated at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek. The city's population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan a ...

, and attended the local schools. At age 16, he enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

participating in several battles including

Antietam The Battle of Antietam (), or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union ...

and Gettysburg. After the war, he spent a year in high school and then entered the

Bellevue Hospital Medical College NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

in New York City. He earned his M.D. in 1869. He interned at both the

Kings County Hospital Kings County Hospital Center is a municipal hospital located in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is owned and operated by NYC Health + Hospitals, a municipal agency that runs New York City's public hospitals. It has ...

Brooklyn, New York City Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

and at a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

hospital during an

epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...

for fifteen months. In 1873 he became superintendent of

Flatbush Insane Asylum Flatbush may refer to: * Flatbush, Brooklyn, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City * Flatbush, Alberta, a hamlet * ''Flatbush'' (TV series), 1979 American sitcom See also * Flat Bush Flat Bush (also known as Ormiston or Flatbush) is a s ...

. In 1876, he was appointed superintendent of the

State Asylum for the Criminally Insane State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Auburn, New York Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States. Located at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Central New York, the city had a population of 26,866 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city of Cayuga County, the ...

. He then managed the

New York State Inebriate Asylum The New York State Inebriate Asylum, later known as Binghamton State Hospital, was the first institution designed and constructed to treat alcoholism as a mental disorder in the United States. Located in Binghamton, NY, its imposing Gothic Reviva ...

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

. He remained in both Auburn and Binghamton until 1880. In 1880, the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official ...

passed the

State Care Act State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

which provided for the removal of all insane persons from

almshouses An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

, county

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

s, and

workhouses In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

to state mental hospitals. The act established a commission which included a psychiatrist president and two lay members and was charged to be responsible for the state mental hospitals. MacDonald was appointed as the president and held the position until 1896 when he resigned in protest of the commission to carry out its responsibilities which were seen by the state hospital superintendents as a threat to their autonomy. WmKmlr-execution

MacDonald, as a member of the New York Medico-Legal Society, worked on the development of the first

, specifically working with other Society members on the composition and placement of electrode on the condemned prisoner.Mark Essig, Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death, Bloomsbury Publishing USA - 2009, pages 225 He was also an attending physician at the execution of

William Kemmler William Francis Kemmler (May 9, 1860 – August 6, 1890) was an American peddler, alcoholic, and murderer, who, in 1890, became the first person in the world to be executed by electric chair. He was convicted of murdering Matilda "Tillie" Ziegle ...

in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890, the first execution using the electric chair. He was a professor of mental diseases at the

from 1888 to 1896 and a lecturer at the

Albany Medical College Albany Medical College (AMC) is a private medical school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1839 by Alden March and James H. Armsby and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation. The college is part of the Albany Medical Center, which ...

from 1892 to 1894. In 1906, MacDonald purchased a private mental hospital, Falkirk Sanatorium, in

Central Valley, New York Central Valley is a hamlet in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 1,857 at the 2000 census, at which time it was a census-designated place. It is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, NY Metropolitan St ...

which he operated for many years. In 1906, MacDonald was asked to examine Leon Czolgosz who had assassinated President McKinley. MacDonald found the prisoner sane and attended Czolgosz’s execution in the electric chair. He attended the

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

and published his findings in a report. He was president of the American Medico-Psychological Association now the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...

from 1913 to 1914. MacDonald died on May 29, 1926 in

Memberships

He was a member of the

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

. He was a consulting physician at the Manhattan State Hospital. He was a member of the

New York County Medical Society The New York County Medical Society is a professional membership organization for physicians who live or work in the Borough of Manhattan. As such, it is part of the larger network of medical organizations which includes the American Medical Ass ...

and the New York Medico-Legal Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Carlos Frederick 1845 births 1926 deaths American psychiatrists People from Niles, Ohio People of Ohio in the American Civil War New York University Grossman School of Medicine alumni Albany Medical College faculty Physicians from Ohio Presidents of the American Psychiatric Association