The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-07-13
Hanging for Amusement.
lpr. r. 5. Tracy, iu Popular Science MONTH";
1 1

Julyl
Two remarkable examples are on re-
cord of persons who allowed themselves
o be hung for the entertainment of an
audience. An account of one of them is
given in the Lancet of April IL, 1877
The mans real name was John Harm
shaw, but he performed throughout
England under the high-sounding pro-
was an athlete, and among other feats il
was customary with him to exhibit the
process of hanging. In this performance
he relied for security on the strength of
the muscles of the neck and throat. He
had rope with 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 pre-
vented any pressure of the rope on the
wind pipe or the jugular veins, and
could even sustain weight of one
hundred and fifty pounds in addition to
that of his own body.
On three separate occasions Harnshaw
mismanaged the rope, and became UNI
conscious, being luckily rescued in time.
DR.. Chowne who writes the account says
very truly: 1t can not be doubted
that, as far as sensation and conscious
ness are concerned, Harnshaw passed
through the whole ordeal of dying and,
had he been permitted to remain hang
ing until actually dead, he would have
passed out of existence without further
consciousness.
Now, this man stated, not with par
ticular reference to either accident, but
as common to all, that che could hardly
recollect any thing that happened to
him in the rope" that " he 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 were 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; you
can not think" He did not see sparks
or light, but had in his ears ratlling
sound.
All the evidence goes to show that
death by hanging is painless, and there is
positively no fact or well-founded opin-
ion to the contrary. If this be the case,
then, what is the explanation of it?
Simply this: That in every form of
stranglllation the blood-vessels of the
neck are compressed, as well as the air
passages A large part Of the blood is
returned 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 a 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
little further inward, and the blood is
still poured through them into the brain,
whence it can not escape. When this
pumping process is going on at the rate
of seventy strokes minute, it is easy to
understand how the engagement of the
vessels Of the brain, in very brief
time, reaches degree which causes in
sensibility. To explain why this CON
gestion causes inconsistencies would in
volve a technical discussion which
would here be out of place. 1t
must suffice to say that it does; so that,
as the cerebral congestion in a hanged
person brings on insensibility within a
minute, while the physical agony of
suffocation does not begin until later, it
follows that the victim does not feel any
of the pangs of asphyxia. He first be-
comes insensible, with accompanying
pleasurable feelings, from cerebral con-
gestion, and then is choked to death
while unconscious.