The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-01-03
HANGING.
The Sensations Experienced and Their
Speedy Cessation.
fNau York


Speedy Cessation.
New York Times.l
The almost instantaneous abolition OF
sensation described by DR.. Graeme N.
Hammond in the experiments undertaken
by him upon his own person, with view
10 test the comparative painles ness OF
death by strangulation and death by
dislocation of the second cervical YER
zebra, which is now the practice in
this city in executing capital sentences, has
received many combinations in the litera.
the persons no have attempted suicide by
hanging, but also by medical inqnirers,
who have tested the question. LORD Veru.
lam, In the Historic Fitse ct Merits /"
instances the case OF gentleman who,
being curious to satisfy himself as to
sensations experienced by criminals
subject to the death penalty, hanged
himself by mounting upon stool and
then dropping himself off thinking, OF
course, that he would be able to regain the
stool at pleasure. The experiment would
have ended fatally but for the Opportune in.
tervention of a friend who released him
from his perilous situation. When cues
toned as TO his sensations, he replied that
he felt no pain whatever, but at first saw
around him Incorporation ola vast xpanse Of
flame, which was succeeded by an intense
lOilOMcu Nv u vast Ic4u vi pale
blue or sea-greeE, such as is often described
by persons in faint Moniagnac who was
rescued from death by hanging by Marshal
Turenne, declared that all sensation ceased
instantly, and beautiful light, vivid be-
yond all description, filled surrounding
space.
FIeischmann, whose essay on death by
| strsngulation. :'Annales d'Hvgienc" Tome
VII, page 4S2, is classic authority, gives a
| n Of
of which lasted two minutes. At the
moment the cord frightened he experienced
sensation of great weight, accom-
panied by kissing noises in his ears
| Then sensibiiity ceased, and he knew
no more until resuscitated. According
to Jacquemain, who gathered his informa.
ton from would-be suicides in the MsEas
Prison, at the lnstent of pressure there is
| invariably sensation of great heat in the
head, followed by loud noises, which are
musical in their tenor. The latter are sue
ceeded BY sense of weight in the limbs,
and then sensation departs-the whole series
| of phenomena not LISTING apparently more
than a few seconds. In some cases the
pressure is followed by instant syncope,
and there is no sensation whatever.
me- Inc oonvnisiVe m, movements e spas
contraction of the pupils, and contortions of
and give the countenance such a terrible ex-
preston are not, according to Jacquamain,
accompanied by an consciousness Of suffer
| ing, and Taylor and Tardieu are of the same
opinion. The latter believes that death
surervenes within ten minutes, and the
former that resuscitation is impossible at
the expiration Of the fifth minute.
The marvellous tales of recovery after sus-
pension for bali an hour are very apocry-
phal, and rest upon no sufficient foundation.
Ii the rope is so adjusted that compression
CT the vessels and occusion of the air from
the lungs are instantaneous, it is evident that
sensation is at once abolished, and this
agrees with the results of experiments on an
imals, in which sensation is suspended With
the complete suspension of respiration by
compression of the gullet. The difference
between the first sensations, as described by
Montagnac and Fleischmann, may, without
taxing the veraeity of either. be accounted
for upon the assumption that in the case of
the former, had the ex pertinent been carried
to the end, death would have resulted from
asphyxia, while IN that of the latter the
symptoms were apoplectic. DR.. Hammond
felt sensation of pressure in the head,
with noises in the ears like the n urmur of a
sea shell. In his first experiment conscious.
ness lasted eighty seconds and in his second
trial only fiity-hve seconds. Vision disap-
pesred almost instantsneously in each case,
but there were no flashes Of color.