The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-13
AGoNIEs OF CRUCIFIxION.
What Caused the Death of Those Nailed to
the Gross.

the Gross.
DR.. Cooper in New York Medical Journal.
All civilized communities demand that
life to be sacrificed shall be sacrificed swiftly
and without needless pain. True, various
nations have different opinions as to how this
may best be accomplished; but the American
and English governments have decided that
hanging is the most mercitul. AS compared
with the Spanish instrument OF death-the
garrote-it is questionable whether or not
hanging is the most merciful. A bungling
executioner may, in either case, cause unnec-
essary fortunes. With these subjects, how
ever, this paper has nothing to do. The
writer desires simply to set forth the various
modes of crucifxion as adopted by
the ancients and to show what terrible
sufferngs the wretched malefactor had
to undergo before death came to his
relief. Hours and days of unmitigated
torture; thirst which was unquenchable;
prolonged suffocation; horrible gasping for
breath, intensified only by a moments res
pite; the bites of the vultureS of the air,
and the stings and borrowings of insects;
the burning of the rays of the MONDAY
sun, and the cold clammy dews at midnight
tell us, in awful language, of that dies
irae, from repetition of which the present
day is happily delivered. In comparison,
our present capital punishments are most
merciful, and the vndication of justice most
humane.
been an upright tree, to which the victim
was either bound or nailed. In Ezra vi,
II, it is ordered that "whosoever shall
alter his word let timber be pulled down
from his home, and being set up, let him
be hanged thereon and let his house be
made a dunghill for this" Titus had no
time to add a horizontal beam when cru
cifying 500 Jews a day for months. He
simply drove pole into the ground, to
which the victim was dashed, and he was
left to die.
Slaves were generally punished by having
"furca" Cork) slipped over their necks, to
which their arms were tied and this was
hoisted to the top of pole, and secured
there by rope fitting into a groove. This
device evidently suggested the more recent
| cross to save time, and as being more artis-
tic
1t was usual to nail the hands, but to bind
the feet. 1t is erroneous to suppose that a
single spike secured both feet to the cross,
one foot in front of the other. A spike was
driven through each foot, sometimes to sup
port fixed on the cross just beneath the plan
tar surface of the feet. Additional cruelty
was sometimes practced by the victim being
seated on a spike or horn" Dustin Martyr)
| though at times piece of wood was so placed
| that he might rest on it.
The nails, aided by intense heat soon pro-
| duced gangrene. Although the cuprit
writhed IN agony for some time, it is doubt
! full whether any long-contnued activity of
the body could be maintained. The weight
of the intestines, gravitating downward, pro-
| duced intussusception. The circulation was
impeded, the viscera pressing on the veins.
The lungs could not be emptied. Insects got
into the eyes, nose ears and wounds. AT
nightfall the bones of the legs of those still
| living were broken, ostensibly to hasten
death, but, in reality, to crafty the specta-
| tors, who were becoming stated.
Death generally resulted from gangrene of
| wounds displacement of viscera, regurgita-
| ton of blood through the valves of the heart,
pericarditis and paralysis of heart and lungs.
"In many cases death was accelerated by
hunger and thirst, the vicIssitudes of heat
and cold. or the attacks of ravenous birds and
beasts, and in others designedly accelerated
by burning, stoning suffocaton, breaking the
bones or piercing the vital organs" (Adam
Clarke, Commentary on Matthew" chap.
xvii, v. So
According to Orgen, Timotheus and Maui
ra married pair who suffered about the
year 296, under Diocletian, remained for nine
days and nights on the cross, exhorting each
other, and expired on the tenth day. By
order of the Emperor Maximian, in the year
297, seven Christians at Samosata were sub
jected to long and various tortures, three of
them were taken down from the cross while
yet alive, and the Emperor, hearing of this,
ordered huge nails to be driven into their
heads
MAD CATS CAPERS