Omaha daily bee., 1888-07-29
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
Hanging, Said TO Produce Death
Quicker Than Electricity.

1Nit w IL HoNAuSC az
Quicker Than Electricity.
Globe-Democrat: At "a recent meeting
of the Medico-Legal society, of New
York, DIR. William A. Hammond, the
eminent specialist and psychologist,
discussed the subject of capital punish
ment by hanging and electricity. He
and several of his colleagues were of
the opinion that hanging was the more
painless and certain of the two meth
DDS of innicting legal death. AS New
York has changed it's laws, substituting
electricity for the classic rope, the sub
ject was onesof great interest from a
medico-legal point of view.
For interest of science and the eu-
thanasia of would-be murderers in gen.
eral, several w%ell-known surgeons de-
termined to perform a series of expert
ments on living ANIMALS to decide the
question, and their results, which are
about to be published in a well-known
scientific journal, are considered of
special Importance. The eXperimenters
were DR.. B. Curtis, DR.. George Brown
Phelps and II. S. Lewis. They were
assisted by three medical students.
There programme was:
l. Time required to produce death by
hanging.
2. Time required to produce death by
electricity.
3. Post-mortem appearances.
4. Resuscitation after death by either
method.
The experiments were chiefly carried
on at the Carnegie laboratory. Boys
were employed to obtain the unfortu-
nate CANNES, and all collision with the
society for the prevention or cruelty to
animals was carefully avoided by
secrecy.
The room, or laboratory, in which
the experiments were made was at the
rear of the building on the fifth floor.
A powerful electric dynamo was OBJ
tanned and a gibbet of the most APP
proved pattern erected. Room was also
provided for the dogs who should be re-
suscitated after apparent death by
either means. The animals were Sc
curely muzzled before the experiments
were attempted, but this did not pre-.
vent their bowling. The details of
each experiment will be published by
the experimenters. The results were
greatly in favor of hanging. Out
Of 100 dogs, fifty were hung
and fifty submitted to the electric
discharge. OF those hung twenty were
dead in less than five minutes, and from
pOst-mortem examination it was appar-
ept that they died almost instantly.
Five out of the fifty were resuscitated
and are alive, but they were all small.
1t was found that 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 instan taneously.
OF the fifty submitted to the electric
discharge Of the strength and in the
manner prescribed by the state law for
the death of criminals, instant death
was produced in only five experiments.
1t required on the average ten minutes
to kill, and in eighteen instances
the animal YVES easily resuscitated In
even he'came to without the slightest
treatment within two hours after appar,
ent death. The prescribed discharge
entirely failed to produce death in three
instances, and n of these three dogs
came to after double the strength O.
electric discharge had been given.
From the post mortem appearance o.
the brain and nerve centers, and from
other things observed, the eXperimentei
concluded the electric discharge caused
the ~intenssst agony, especially wher
not strong enough to kill at once, while
in the case of hanging the evidence
pointed to immediate paralysis of the
nerve centers and a painless death
Such are the chief results OF their in
designations.