St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-08-01
A True Tale of Horror.

Dr. Lambert, the man who restores
drowned people to life by the applica-
ton of heat, while leaving his Office
one afternoon, stepped into the report
er's room. Busy as were their pencils,
their scent for news was keener.
"And if a man has been hanged, doc
tor, can he, too, be restored by heat 2"
asked the most inquisitive among them,
upon whom the new method of resuS-
citating the drowned has made deep
impression.
The doctor, who had never looked
better in his life, answered mildly:
"Why not ?"
''But what if his neck is broken n
asked a muscular reporter.
"Did you ever see man hanged Y"
demanded the youth, with the intOna-
ton of person who had devoted a
century or so to sightseeing of that
sort.
Several times" answered the man
| slowly.
"What does hanged man hang his
head over on one side for, then-so 7"
"NOt because his neck is dislOcated.
The ligatures of the neck are stronger
than any rope. Hanging never yet
broke a neck. It's the shock that tends
to kill the man-the shock and, then,
the suffocation. You know how it
shocks ynnr brain tn make a misstep
when going down stairs. Well, there
are fifty thousand springs that your
head rests on from the neck to the feet.
But when you jerk a man up by the
neck the shock comes without any in
tervention of springs"
"I've heard doctors say that mans
neck was broken by hanging" persisted
the muscular man.
$50 have I-young doctors. But sur
gical science does not report such
case"
''Oh, well, now you're on science, I'll
give in," and the modest secular report
er withdrew a step and filled his pipe.
His forte is facts straight.
''Did you ever see hanged man
come to life, doctor 2" asked a doubtful
Thomas.
Eyes, have"
All ears bent perceptibly toward the
speaker, and there was silence as in
DEATH
ga young fellow" began the doctor,
twas condemned to be executed. Du-
ring his incarceration he promised his
body to the prison physician in return
for the tobacco that he used. When he
was dead the physician determined to
try an electrical machine on him but
never having handled one, called me to
help him. | went. We applied cleo
tricity to various parts of the body and
wherever it was applied the body NOV
ed. AT length we sent current along
the spine from end to end. The fellow
was lying on a long table-as long as
well docking around the roOm)-
rather longer than any you've got here.
He sat up; opened his eyes slowly;
shut them up then opened them wide.
The physician who owned the body,
and two young men who were helping
him, started atfrighted for the door"
''Did the man come around all right,
doctor ?" inquired the Thomas reporter,
earnestly.
''He didn't lie down again. In half
an hour he spOke-asked where he was
and what we were doing with him. In
a couple of hours he was on his way
out of the town as fast as his legs could
carry him. .-----------
think he was dissected."
"Ought he to have been hanged if he
had been caught 2"
"Wen there's difference of opinion
about that. Certainly the physician
owned him-had bought and paid for
him.
s'Would it have been wrong doctor
for the physician to kill him, when he
was coming to life and robbing him OF
his property 2"
The reporter who asked the question
is one of the most bloodthirsty person:
in this city. The doctor wisely replied
by saying that the answer belonged t.
the department of morals, in which h'
was not a professOr.-NeD York EUen