San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-11-29
A NEW MODE OF EXECUTION.

The Use OF Carbonic oxide as
Humane Substitute for Hanging.
From the Boston Transcript
DIR. Samuel w. Abbott, secretary Of
the Massachusetts, State Board of
Health, contributes to the Bos ton
Medical and Surgical Journal an in
teresting paper relative to substitute
ing for hanging some better and more
humane method OF inflictipg the death
penalty. In the present state of sci
entific knowledge of the nature and
effects upon the human system, DIR.
Abbott IS not prepared to accept
it as the best substitute at hand,
saying of the experiments which
have been made; at would appear
from the results that there are serious
hinderances to the adoption of this
subtitle agent" Without considering
the main question as to whether
some other method should take the
place of hanging, DR.. Abbott says
that if a change is desirable Tin car
bonic oxide we possess such an agent.
which has the property of destroying
rapidly and painlessly when properly
administered He refers to the
writings of DIR. B. w. Richardson, of
London, who several years ago
brought the method to public notice
for the destruction of small domestic
animals, such as dogs and cats, and
especially to DR.. Richardson's state
ment that 1000 such animals had
destroyed in London in few months
previous to the DOCTORS article
on 1.-THE Painless Extinction of
Life.n DIR. Abbott says carbonic
oxide may be made from charcoal
at small cost, or it may be OBJ.
tanned more cheaply still from the
street mains or any coal and water
gas company. Water gas he consid-
ers preferable to coal gas, since 1t con-
tains from four to five times as much
carbonic oxide, and would, therefore,
be more rapid and fatal in it's action.
He says: IAN atmosphere of 25 to 30
per cent of carbonic oxide, as in the
case of water gas, or, still better, one
of so per cent or more, as may be
made from charcoal, would undoubt-
eddy destroy human life in less than
two minutes without pain" He has
himself used a mixture of a. bout per-
cent, with air, with perfect success in
destroying small animals in from one
to one and half minutes without the
appearance of pain.
Dr.Abbott goes on to show that the
apparatus tor an execution may be
of the simplest and most inexpensive
kind and suggests tight wooden
box 3 feet square and seven feet high,
a tightly fitting door, an aperture for
admitting gas pipe of liberal size for
applying a rapid supply ofgas under
ordinary pressure from the street
mains, and a smaller aperture to al
low the expulsion Of the air. fla
higher percentage of carbonic oxide
is desired a small charcoal furnace
would be required for generating it
and storing it temporarily, as in the
case Of DR.. Richardson who says: Com
pared with other methods of eXtin-
animal life, such as han
ging, drowning, poisoning by prussic
acid, shooting, stunning, the lethal
method stands far ahead on every
ground of practical readiness, GER
tainly humanity" In summing up,
DR.. Abbot claims for carbonic oxide
the advantages of painless death,
rapid action and economy. In respect
to the second point he says: "Its &C
tion should not be conf0unded with
the slow action of small percentage of
gas, such as is illustrated by the ac-
deaths often occurring in no.
tells. These almost invariably hap
pen by exposure to the gas escaping
from a mere pipe hole or slit in the
gas burner, which consequently forms
but ner cent of the air of the apart
ment and destroys life slowly" In
regard to economy, he says that the
cost OF the wooden box would be but
a trifle, and the expense of IS or 100
feet of gas scarcely worth mentioning
when compared with the expensive
required for an electrical
execution.