New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-18
The Guillotinc.

1t is generally taken for granted that the
beheading instrument used in France and
some other countries in Europe was invented,
or at least perfected, by the amiable and
philanthropic physician whose name it bears,
but in reality this doubtful honor belongs to
some earlier inventor whose name has not
been preserved. An instrument of this kind
was used in Germany early in the thirteenth
century, and was known as the "Panke"
"Diel." In 1888 it is mentioned in the
criminal statutes of the Netherlands, and its
name appears in many accounts of executions
in Germany and other countries about the
same period.
In italy similar instrument, called the
manndia was used for the execution Of per-
sons Of quality. Beatrice Cenci suffered
death by this instrument in 1899. In Eng
land similar machine was used and full
description of it may be found in the British
State Calender for l70S. The "maiden" OF
Scotland, which was used for the beheadng
of Morton in 1881, was an instrument similar
to those already mentioned, and is supposed
to have been brought over from Germany by
the very man who suffered by it. 1t is still
preserved in the museum of the Antiquarian
Society at Edinburgh. Even France pos
scssed it as early as the fifteenth century,
under the name of "Doloire;" and two
centuries later the unfortunate Duke dc
Montmorency was executed with this instru-
ment, ut the instigation Of Richelieu. 1t
seems then to have passed out of use and to
have been forgotten.
When, therefore, DR.. Joseph Ignance
Guillotin, on the LIST of December, 1879, pro-
posed in the French Constituent Assembly
to alleviate the horrors of capital punishment
BY adopting a machine which would dispense
with the axe or sword, he was merely re-
viving an old continuance, which had been
superseded in Germany, France, and Italy by
the very instruments of decapitation which he
was trying to abolish.
DIR. Guillotin's motion was not formally
acted on until the Goth of March, 1892, when
a resolution was passed ordering decapi-
tating machine of the kind prescribed by the
doctor to be adopted. The plan was sub
mitted to the carpenter employed by the gov
eminent, who demanded 5000 francs for
making the machine, but finally, after much
chaffering, better bargain was made with a
young German mechanic named Schmidt, who
| agreed to furnish eighty-three of the new in
struments-one for each department-for the
sum of five hundred francs each. 1t was first
tried on the 18th of April, 1892, upon num-
Der of corpses at the Bicetre hospital, and
| was found to work with rapidity and preci-
| sion. A week later it was employed for the
decapitation of convicted highway robber
| it was afterward put in the wholesale massa-
ere of innocent men, women, and even chill
dren, made its very name horror, and pro-
| badly contributed not little to its not being
| adopted in England and the United States,
| instead of the gallows, as means of infict-
| ing capital punishment. 1t consists of block
resting between two upright grooved posts,
between which slides a heaviy-weighted
knife with an oblique edge. The sufferer is
strapped firmly to plank, and thrust face
downward between the posts, so that his
| neck is directly under the knife. A spring is
| touched, the heavy, keen-edge blade de.
| sends, and the head is severed from the
body as easily as sharp razor sewers hair
| DR.. Guillotin himself narrowly escaped be.
ing victim of the instrument which bears
his name. He was thrown into prison during
the reign Of terror, but was released on the
death of Robespierre, resumed the practice o.
his profession in Paris, and died quietly in his
bed on the Goth of March, 1914. The story
that he died broken-hearted because of the in.
fanny attached to his invention is, of course
/ untrue.
The question whether death by the guillo.
tine is comparatively painless was raised in
France soon after the reintroduction of the
| instrument. In 1895 DIR. Sommering, in the
| Aoniteur, denounced it as too rapid in its
operation, and maintained that sensation die
not cease Immediately after decapitation
Many experiments were tried to test the
truth of his theory. Emminent physicians
assiduously attended executions, and by
striking at the severed head, shouting in it,
ear, and divers other ways, endeavored tt
ascertain whether sensation survived thu
shock of decapitation. Sommering's bool
was followed by Gedillott's Historical ant
Philosophical reflections upon Execution by
the GuiIlotine," and the next year the same
author continued the discussion in a work en-
titled Anecdotes of Decapitated Persons
But the question remains unanswered.
HdrDer,s Md0dzine