Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-09-13
CAPITAL PuN.sHaaEssr.



ThaR DsetKss1ty.
At recent meeting Of the Aedico.
Legal Society, DR.. William A. Ham
mond, the eminent specialist and
psychologist, 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 ceFtaan
of the two methods of inhicting legal
death. As this State has changed it
laws. substituting electricity for the
classic rope, the subject was ono Of
great interest from a medico-legal
poin: of view.
For interest of science and the en-
thanasia of would-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 a we'll
known scientific journal, are consid-
cred of special Importance. The ex-
perimenters were DIR. B. Curtiss, DR..
Geo. Brown Phelps and H. S. Lewis.
They were assisted by three medical
students.
Their programme was:
!. 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 car
ried on at the Carnegie laboratory.
Boys were employed to obtain the un-
fortunate 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 We're 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 resuscitated after apparent death by
either means. The animals were Sc
curely muzzled before the experiments
We're 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 a
hundred 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 APP
parent that they died almost in
stantly. 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 OBJ
tanned. and where weight was added
to the dogs weight. death seemed to
take place instantaneously. OF the
fifty submitted to the electric discharge
of the strength and in the manner pre-
scribed by the State law for the death
of criminals, instant death was pro-
duced in only five experiments. 1t
required ON the average ten minutes
to kill, and in eighteen instances the
animal was easily resuscitated. In
seven he came to without the slight
est treatment within two hours after
apparent death. The prescribed dis
charge entirely failed to produce
death in three instances, and one of
these three dogs came to after double
the strength of electric discharge had
been given.
From the post-mortem appearance Of
the brain and nerve centers, and from
other things observed, the expert
menter concluded that the electric dis
charge caused the intensest agony, es-
pecially when not strong enough to
kill at once, while in the case of hang
ing the evidence pointed to immediate
paralysis of the nerve centers and a
painless death. Such are the chief re-
suits Of their investigations.-N y.
Letter.