The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1888-10-13
CAPITAL PUNIsaHENE


Experiments SHOWING That Hanging Prddacss
sesiA Quicker fSan EIsetricits,
At a recent meeting of the Medico-
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
colleagues were of the opinion that
hanging was the more painless and
certain of the two methods of inf1ict-
ing legal death. As New York has
changed it's laws, substituting cleo
tricity for the classic rope, the subject
was one of great interest from q
medico-legal point of view.
. For interest of science and the ea.
thanasia of would-be m6fderefs in
general, several well-known surgeons
determined to perform a series of ex-
periments on living animals to decide
the question, and their results, which
are about to be published in scien-
tific journal, are considered of special
Importance. The experimenters were
DR.. B. Curtiss, DIR, George Brown
Phelps, and III. s. Lewis, They were
assisted by three medical students.
Their programme was:
l.. Time required to produce death
by hanging.
Q. Time required to produce death
by electricity,
B. Pust-mortem appearances.
f. Resuscitation after death by
either method.
The experiments were chiefly car.
ried on at the Carnegie laboratory.
Boys were employed to obtain the
unfortunate 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 at the
rear of the building On the fifth floor.
Apowerful electric dynamo was OBJ
tanned and a gibbet of the most ap-
proved pattern erected. Room was
also provided for the dogs who
should be resuscitated after appa-
rent death by either means. The
animals were securely muszled before
the experiments were attempted, but
this did not prevent 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 ex-
animation it was apparent that they
died almost instantly. Five out OF
the fifty were resuscitated and are
alive, but they are all small. It was
found that the heavier the animal the
quicker the result of death was OBJ
tanned, and where a weight was added
to the dogs weight, death seemed to
take place instantaneously. Of the
fifty submitted to the electric dis
charge of the strength and in the man.
ner 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 were 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 ofelectric discharge had been
given.
From the post-mortem appearance
of the brain and nerve centers, and
from other things observed, the ex-
perimenter concluded that the cleo
trio discharge caused the intensest
agony, especially when 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 oftheir investiga-
tions.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.