Harrison Stanford Martland

Who was Harrison Stanford Martland?

Harrison Stanford Martland was an American pathologist who coined the term punch drunk.

Martland was born in Newark, New Jersey. In 1901 he received a BS degree from Western Maryland College and in 1905 he received his MD degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Martland accepted the appointment of the first full-time paid pathologist at the Newark City Hospital in January 1909. On November 16, 1910 he married Myra C. Ferdon and they purchased a house at 180 Clinton Avenue, Newark, which was to be their home until his death in 1954. When World War I broke out, Dr. Martland joined the Bellevue Hospital Unit and as a lieutenant colonel he took charge of a hospital in Vichy, France. He later was awarded a Citation for Exceptionally Meritorious and Conspicuous Service by General John Pershing.

In June 1925, Dr. Martland was chosen to fill the post of Essex County Physician. Immediately, he saw the danger of divided authority in the system that allowed a coroner's jury of laymen to decide causes of sudden death; therefore, he set out to establish the medical examiner system in Essex County.