The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-07-25
Sensations in Hanging.

Science Monthly for July:
Two remarkable examples are on
record of persons who allowed them
selves to be hung for the entertainment
of an audience. An account of one of
them is given in the Laaaret of April IL,
1S47. The mans real name was John
Harnshaw, but he performed throughout
England under the high-sounding pro-
fessional title of Monsieur Gouffe. He
was an athlete, and among other feats
it was customary with him to exhibit the
process OF hanging. In this perform
ance he relied for security on the
strength of the muscles of the neck and
throat. He had rope with a fixed
knot which could not slip, and passed
both ends of the loop behind one ear
The whole act was so adroitly managed
that he prevented any pressure of the
rope on the wind-pipe or the jugular
veins, and could even sustain a weight
of $50 pounds in addition to that of his
own body.
On three separate occasions Harm
shaw mismanaged the rope and became
unconscious, being luckily rescued each
time. DR.. Chowne, who writes the ac-
count, says very truly: at can not be
doubted that as far as sensation and
consciousness are concerned, Harnshaw
passed through the whole ordeal of dy-
ing; and, had he been permitted to re-.
main hanging until actually dead he
would have passed out of existence with
out further consciousness.
Now, this man stated, not with partic-
ular reference to either accident, but as
common to all, that che could hardly
recollect any thing that happened to him
in the rope;" that she lost his senses
all at once; the instant the rope got in
the wrong place he felt as if he could
not get his breath-as if some great
weight was at his feet; could not move
only to draw himself up; felt as if he
wanted to loosen himself, but never
thought of his hands" And he added
"You can not move your arms or legs to
save yourself; you can not raise your
arms; you can not Think He did not
see sparks or light, but had in his ears
rafting sound.
All the evidence goes to show that
death by hanging is painless, and there
is positively no fact or well founded
opinion to the contrary. If this be the
case, then, what is the explanation of it ?
Simply this: that in every form of stran-
gulation the blood-vessels of the neck
are compressed, as well as the air:pas-
sages. A large part of the blood is re-
turned from the head by the external
jugular veins, which are very near the
surface, and in which the current can be
checked by slight pressure. Most of the
blood from the brain itself comes back
through the internal jugulars, which lie
near, but little outside of, the carotid
arteries. The walls of veins are lax and
yielding, SO as to be easily compressed,
while those of the arteries are firm and
elastic, and it requires considerable force
TO approximate them. Pressure, then,
which is sufficient to close the jugular
veins, only crowds the carotids a little
further inward, and the blood is still
poured through them into the brain,
whence it can not escape. When this
process is going at the rate of
seventy strokes minute, it is easy to
how the engagement of the
vessels OF the brain. in very brief time,
reaches degree which causes insensi-
bliity. To explain why this congestion
causes Inconsistencies would involve a
technical discussion which would here
De out OF place. It must suffice to say
that it does; so that, as the cerebral
congestion in a hanged person brings on
lnsensibility within q minute, while the
physical agony of suffocation does not
begin until later, it follows that the vic
tim does not feel any of the pangs of
asphyxia. He first becomes insensible.
with accompanying pleasurable feelings,
from cerebral congestion, and then is
choked to death while unconscious
. WHAT is the nature of the land on
the plantation?" asked a lawyer of a
colored witness. Witness, solemnly,
Sc Good n afrrod 1o,d - -