Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-10-31
CAPITAL PUNISHulENT.
Hanging said 10 Produce Death
Quicker Than Electricity.

At recent meeting of the Medico-
Legal Society. DIR. William a. Ham
mond, the eminent specialist ana
physioIogIst, discussed the subject OF
capital punishment by hanging and
electricity. He and several of his col
leagues were OF the opinion that hang
Ing was the more painless and certain
of the two methods Of intiIctiDg legal
death. AS this State has changed Its
laws, substituting electricity for the
classic rope, the subject was one OF
great interest from medico-legal point
of view.
For the interest of science and the
enthanasia of wouId-be murderers in
general. several well-known surgeons
determined to perform series of ex-
periments on living animals to decide
the question, and their results, which
are about to be published in we'll
known scientific journal, are consider
ed OF special Importance. The expert
menters were DR.. 3. Curtiss, DIR. Geo.
Brown Phelps and ii. 5. Lewis. They
were assisted by three medical stu
dents.
Their programme was:
/. Time required to produce death by
hanging
2. Time required to produce death by
electricity.
3. Posr-mortem appearances.
f. Resuscitation after death by either
method.
The experiments were chiefly carried
on at the Carnegie laboratory. Boys
were employed to obtain the unfortun-
ate CANNES, and all collision with the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals was carefully avoided by
secresy.
The room. or laboratory. in which
the experiments were made was at the
rear of the building, on the fifth floor.
\ powerful electric dynamo was Oh
! tanned and a gibbet of the most APPROX
| Ell pattern erected. Room was also
provided for the dogs who should he
resuscitated after apparent depth by
| either means. The animals were Sc
cureIy muzLled before the experiments
were attempted. but this did not pre-
vent their howilng. The details of each
| experiment VIII be published by the ex-
peTimenters. The results were greatly
in favor of hanging Out of hundred
dogs fifty were hung and fifty submit
ted to the electric discharge. or those
hung twenty were dead in less than five
minutes, and from post-mortem exam
| ination it was apparent that they died
/ almost INSTANTLY. I've OuI VI buc my
were resuscitated, and are alive, but
| they were ali small. Ii was found thai
the heavier the animal the quicker the
result OF death was obtained, and where
a weight was added To the dogs weight.
death seemed to take place iDstantan :
| eously. OF the fifty submitted to The
electric discharge of the strength and
in the manner prescribed by the Sf1te
law for the death of criminals, inefont
| death was produced in only five exp1rs-
ments. 1t required on the ayer2k0 I'm
minutes to kill, and In eight h.
! stances the animal was easily fesussIS
| tated. In seven he came to without
| the slightest treatment within two
hours after apparent death. The pre-
scTibed discharge entirely failed to pro-
| duce death in three instances, and one
of these three dogs came to after double
the strength of electric discharge had
been gwen.
From the post-mortem appearance OF
| the brain and nerve centers, and from
other things observed, the experimenter
| concluded that the electric discharge
caused the intensest agony, especially
when not strong enough to kill at once,
while in the case OF hanging the evil
dence pointed to immediate paralysis
| of the nerve centers and painless
death. Such are the chief results Of
their investigations.