The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-06-10
PAINLESS DEATH.
METHODS OF EXTINGUlSHlNG THE
LIFE OF CONDEMNED CRIMINALS.
An Inquiry Which Ripensd Civilization
suggests-Dr. Richardson's Expert
ments with Dogs-The Essence
of the Sentence of Death.
[san Francisco chrOuscle.I


voted attention TO the subject of the
present methods of extinguishing the life
of condemned criminals No one can tell
how much pain Is endured by man who
is hung, or guillotined, or garroted, but
the prevailing impression is that the pain
Is severe IN all these cases, and that il
takes many minutes, which seem an age
to the sufferer. 1t is not the design of
the law that criminals shall be tortured
as well as deprived of life; hence various
processes have been suggested by which
life could be destroyed without the inflic-
ton of bodily suffering.
Ripening civilization has now suggested
the inquiry whether, in all these cases,
the desired object could not be attained
by destroying life with painless an@sthet.
les. An examination of the problem WaS
undertaken in 1871 by the Medical So
Ciety of London, and home for the de-
structiOn of surplus dogs and wounded
animals was established at Mortlake by
DR.. b. W. Richardson, T. S. r., which
appears to be in successful operation to-
day. -Four different anRsthetics have
been used-carbonic oxide, chloroform,
bisulphide of carbon and coal gas. All pro-
duce narcotism, if administered for that
purpose, and in every case the death
which ensues is believed to be painless
ChlorofOrm is certain to KILL If the fluid
is diHused into a state of Vapor and alb
sorbed into the lungs Even per cent of
the vapor in common air is not breathed
without danger. In one out of every
$500 cases where chloToform is admins
tered as an an8sthetic in surgical cases,
death ensues. 1t has one disadvantage
it is dear. But by mixing it with bisul-
phide of carbon, which is very cheap, it
produces narcotism as quickly as carbonic
oxide, and involves less muscular dis
turbance. Common coal gas answers the
purpose equally we'll Its chief
constituents are hydrogen and marsh gas
with some hydro carbon and some car
bOnic oxide BY mixing 25 per cent Of
such gas with common air an atmosphere
is produced in which an animal goes to
sleep N two or three minutes, and dies
asleep, apparently without pain, shortly
afterward. 1t was observed that the heart
ceased to beat about three minutes after
sleep was established. Every one has
read accounts of people who blew out tho
gas at night instead of turning it off. and
were found dead in the morning. They
probably died without consciousness of
suffering. The difficulty with this agent
is that its use involves considerable dan
ger of explosions.
After a series of experiments DR..
Richardson came to the conclusion that
for the case of the lower animals the best
narcotic was carbOnic oxide He prepared
it very simply by burning charcoal over
gas burner The gas thus created was
conducted into reservoir, from which it
was pumped in the quantity required into
what he called the death chamber As
many as eighty or a hundred dogs were
collected together and when everything
was ready the gas was pumped in, with a
slight admiXture of chloroform and
bisulphide of carbon. Some dogs
fell asleep instantly and probably
died at once. Others struggled
against the tendency to sleep and re-
manned awake two or three minutes. Few
could resist as long as this, and in two or
three minutes more all were dead. Cats
were found to fall asleep as quickly as
dogs but resisted death much longer.
Death was produced by an9sthesis, or
sleep, which differs widely from death by
asphyxia, which is death from deprivation
of air. 1t was evidently painless DR..
Richardson tried the process on sheep
with equal success. They died as quietly
as the dogs and their flesh was uninjured.
The method was adopted with the same
result with pigs, calves and fowls. The
cost Of the death chamber and apparatus
is estimated at from $3.50 to $3.50, and the
cost of killing an animal when number
are executed together is about cent
We commend the subject to the con-
sideration of butchers and OF the agents of
MIR. Bergh's society OF all demoraliZing
is hard to understand how humane in
stincts can survive a life spent in cutting
the Threats of brute creatures. 1t was not
for nothing that our English ancestors re-
fused to allow butchers to sit on juries.
We must probably admit that man may
work at an abattoir and still retain a heart,
as we cannot positively say that every
dog catcher must be a brute. But these
callings certainly impose on those who
follow them the onus of proving that they
have still claims to humanity. The
habitual sight of suffering, the constant
spectacle of blood, the repeated contem-
plation of the death agony of poor
dumb beasts must harden the heart
and it must require unusual strength OF
character to resist such an education in
savagery. a reform which did away with
these horrors would surely lessen the crop
of crimes of violence
There is one consideration which must
not be forgotten. The essence of the SEN
tence of death is not in the actual hang
ing of the culprit. 1t is in the previous
mental agony In this country the prac-
tice has long prevailed that considerable
period of time shall elapse between the
sentence and execution The underlying
notion was to afford the condemned Grim
inal an opportunity to prepare himself to
meet his God. What effect it may have
in this direction it is perhaps difficult to
say. 1aymen, at all events, DO mol take
much stock in the religious pro-
LESSONS of men who are going to
be hanged. In our mother country the
practice used to be different 1t was
thought best that the execution should
follow the sentence as swiftly as possible,
80 as to strike terror into the minds of
men who were inclined to crime. In
France the criminal never knows when he
is going to .be executed till the executioner
enters his cell, and. bidding him rise, pro-
ceeds to pinion his arms. 1t is evident
that so far as this mental agony is con-
cerned, a substitution of an an9sthetic
for a bangman's rope would make no diff
ference. The ever-present vision of death,
the counting of the days. the horrid
dreams at night would go on just the
same, whatever form of homicide was
adopted And it would be best so. 1t is
not well that the doom of the murderer
should be robbed of all its terrors-
Fits and Easter Cards.
New York World