Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-04-28
The GuillOtine.

plorc his own ingenuity in inventing or
suggesting a machine which, beside be-
ing effective for the immediate purpose
intended, was the result of a really kind
feeling. The stern irony Of fate OCCASION
ally rewards inventors in this way. Born
in 1888, Guillotin received medical
training; he became a physician of much
repute, and was chosen professor in one
of the French universities. In 1889, when
France was beginning to feel the first
throes of the Revolution. Guillotin was
elected member of the National Assembly,
and took his scat among the Liberals or
Reformers. He proposed a resolution de-
claratory that capital punishment ought
to bear no relation to the rank of the
culprit; that when a criminal is con-
demned to death, for any crime whatever,
the mode of execution should be the same
whether he were peer or peasant. Con-
densed into few words, the resolution
declared "that crimes of the same kind
are to be punished in the same way, what
ever may be the rank of the criminal" !"
Until then mobiles and privileged persons,
when condemned to death, had the honor
of being decapitated either by the axe or
the sword, whereas the common people
were left to the tender mercies of a hemp
en- rope. DIR. GuillOtin at the same time
proposed second resolution. He wished
| to save the unhappy beings from the ad.
ditional punishment arising from the un-
certainty, nervousness, or clumsiness of
the eXecutioner, whether aXe-men or
swordsman. He cited historical incidents
in which two, three, or even more cuts
were given, by the axe or the sword, be-
fore the head of the miserable sufferer was
finally severed from the body. He pro-
posed to do away alike with the gibbet,
the sword and the axe, and to substitute IA
decapitating machine, in which a sharp,
heavy knife should descend on the neck
of the condemned. Feeling assured that
bodily pain could hardly be felt during
this brief operation, he was quite carried
away by his subject, and said, enthusiast
caTly, l could cut off your head with my
machine in the twinkling of an eye, with
out your suffering the smallest paint"
The National Assembly, on receiving
DR.. Guilotin's two propositions, at once
adopted the first of them by decreeing
equality Of punishment for all ranks OF
society, but left the mode of execution for
further consideration. 1t was not till
nearly two years afterward that, on the
motion of NM. Lepelietier and Saint
Fargeon, a decree was issued declaring
that the mode Of capital punishment
should be by .decapitation. Even then
the merits and dement's of the axe, the
sword and the falling knife, were left in
abeyance. In March, 1792, the Assembly
sought the advice of DIR. Antoine Louis, a
celebrated surgeon, and Secretary of the
Paris College of Surgeons. He explained
scientifically how far the various decapi
tating instruments acted like knives and
how far like scissors, and expressed him
self decidedly in favor of chopping ma
chine. He showed that the idea of such
a machine was by no means new one
An Italian book by Achille Bocchi, dated
1865, gives an engraving of an Italian
nobleman being beheaded a heavy blade,
suspended by cords from crussbar al
the top of frame, is represented as fall
ing on the neck of the victim; the ma
chine was called mannaia or mannaia. In
1882 some such apparatus was employed
in Languedoc for decapitating Due Henri
de Montmorenci 1t was also ascertained
that Scotland in the North and Persia in
the East had employed machines bearing
a resemblance to this.
Among the strange scenes of the French
Revolutionary days, not the least strange
was that of the National Assembly listen
| ing gravely TO the details given on these
matters. DR.. Louis conferred with DR..
Guillotin, and also with the famous exc
cutioner Samson. Samson specially urged
that, if all executions henceforth were to
be by beheading, a machine would be
greatly needed, as he distrusted his OWE
power of using the sword or the axe so
frequently and so accurately as would be
necessary After hearing all the explana.
tions and suggestions, the Assembly
passed decree for the use of decapi
tation machine in substitution of the hal
ter, the axe, the sword, and the various
instruments of torture such as the rack
One Schmidt German musical instru.
ment maker, residing at Paris, was taken
into council and he, Guillotin, Louis and
Samson settled among them the details OF
the machine. Nay, there was even fifth
adviser. The King, always fond OF lock
making and amateur engineering, re-
quested to have the designs shown to
him, and he suggested an improvement
which was practically adopted. A sum o
| $500 francs was paid for the machine
constructed for the National Assem-
bly, by Guidon, the carpenter. Ar
attempt was made to give the
name of Louisette, or Louison, to it
in honor of the learned doctor; but the
name GuillOtine had been current in the
public mind for two or three years, and
nothing could supplant it, although DR.
Guillotin certainly never sought to have
his memory thus perpetuated. The ap
paratus was first tried in decapitating the
dead bodies of three men, and some live
animals, at the prison of the Bicetre. DR.
Louis, after seeing the efficacy of the in
vention tested in this way, died just be.
fore the terrible days of the Revolution
came on, and was therefore denied the
pleasure, or spared the pain whichever il
might bel, of seeing the guillotine EN-
ployed as the most dread of political in
struments.
The first victim was an ordinary crimi
nal, highwayman named Nicholas
Jacques Pelletier, who was guillotined or
the 25th of April, 1893. A popular no.
tion prevails that NJ. Guillotin himself
fell victim to the machine which he hat
suggested-nay, that he was it, first vic
tim. Such was not the case; he was il
prison as suspect during the latel
days of the Terror; but tile fall Of Robes
pierre occurred Just in the nick of time
and NJ. Guillotin survived to the days o
the Consulate and the Empire. He wrOt,
portion of autobiography, marked by
the omission of all notice of his much-re
| gretted suggestion of a beheading ma