New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-07-26
THE KEMMLER CASE ADJOURNED
NO MORE TESTIMONY TO BE TAKEN HERE.
MANS RESISTANCE TO ELECTRICITY THE MAIN
SUBJECT OF DIsoUSsIoN-TIIE HEARING

SUBJECT OF DISCUSSION -TIE HEARING
TO GO ON IN BUFFALO.
The session of the Kemmler reference case yester
day which was long and not particularly interesting,
was the last that will be held In this CITY,
The first witness, Joseph ocler, Of Brooklyn was
called to describe the killing Of Thomas Murray a
linemau, by electricity IN April 1888, at the store
of Herman, Heidelberg Co., No. GIG broadway,
where ocker is employed. Then a recess was TAKEN
until noon, when bernard J. Hughes dynamo en-
gipeer employed by the Western Lighting Company.
took the stand to testify to tho killing Of George
scbneitzer at the plant the Harlem Lighting Com
pany No. o4o East one hundred and twenty second
st. in September, 1887. schneitzer, while standing
on a damp noor took hold of an electric lamp ieh
down and died in a few moments. His hands welo
not burned.
Theodore Lehman, an assistant electrician at Inc
Edison Laboratory, at Orange, n j.. related the
osu,ts OF a number of tests OF the resistance OF
human beings and found that in the same persons
# dd not vary greatly from day 10 day
Deputy: Attorney General Poste then introduced
William D. McQucsten. an electrical engineer, whose
opnion was that the various witnesses VINO had TO
ceived shocks from dynamos and survived nae. not
received the full strength of the current, as their
resistance was greater than that of the circuit through
which the current had been travelling and the law
of the flow of electricity that the current was
offered
After Harold p Brown had been recalled to place
in evidence drawing Of the apparatus to be used IN
electrical executions, DR.. Landon Carter Gray was
also recalled He said that number OF european
scientists had conducted experiments TO learn the
electrical resistance Of human beings and all OF uc
had found that IT varied enormously III dheIeho per
sons Mr. Edison's estimates were the lowest Oh
any scientific authority that the witness had seem
ali oil of
scientists, D'Arsonval and Dr. BrownSeauar, who
had apparently killed dogs by electricity and then
brought them to life again by artificial respiration
When asked about the effects of electricity on human
beings, DR.. Gray SAID:
Electricity is Just like arsenic. dose Of the
latter that would kill one man would not DO la'"l
to another DO not think that either agency Is
certain means of death" ri
DR.. Edward NJ McCabe, house surgeon a' o.
vincents, testified to the burns received by Maier
F. Linnell on July . from lve' electric light WIRE
in Eirhtb-st. near Broadway One Of the injured
mans hands was so badly burned that it had 10 De
ampuated Linnelrs father benjamin F. LinneIli
who was present when the accident occurred desctuui
how he was knocked down several times by inc cur
rent in freeing his son from the wire 81, 49,, -.
Miss Lena Cohen, of No. 200 Bowery, thHn oiu nov
"Frcds Wite met his death in front OF her home IN
AnrI 1855 bv touching an electric lamp through
which current was PaSS,nFs enc 1 Hmnang COM
pany, testified that Meyer StreiGer was Killed by a
Minor NJ Davis. who is connected with the Postal
Telegraph Company, the next witness, told me re,
suits of some measurements OF resistance that ne ha
made five persons. He found tnse III nan s aa
hour ono mans resistance would vary as huch ds
'0 T1c last witness was Dr. william T. Jenkins, a
County coroner who testified to the killing Of Thomas
M,Irrav Frcds Wite and Meyer srelfer by cleo
ircty As both Mr. Postc and Mr. Cochran mere an
nOilnced TO Referee Becker that they had no nO.e
witnesses in this city, he adjourned tho hearing 10
July 81 at No % West Ease-st, Buffalo