Morning journal and courier., 1891-06-02
COMMUNICATIONS.
Death by Electricity.

Death by Electricity.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 It has been very little to the credit of the electrical experts who have exhausted their scientific resources to raise & pre- sumption against judicial killing by cleo tricity, that they have talked as if the subject were new, and have appeared to be anything but scholars in a science which had so immense start from the ex- jperiments, experiences and discoveries of Benjamin Franklin; and which has never had an experimeutalist and expositor equal to Michael Faraday during his half centu ry of electrical research from 1872 to 1862. The revelations of Franklin are still great lessons imperfectly apprehend ed, if not entirely forgotten; and if re- cent science were capable of taking up the lines of Faraday's profound researches, following at once his observation of facts and his unexampled sagacity in reflection, our knowledge of the universal agency of electricity, and of it's relation to light, fire, life and all action and activity, in nature and in the universe, would be immeasura- bly greater than it is.
 From experiments which Franklin made upon animals he found that, while scharge from two six gallon jars killed hens out right, under the same charge turkeys, though thrown into violent convulsions, and then lying as dead for some minutes, would recover in less than quarter of an hour." But with charge from five jars ten-pound turkey was successfully killed. As simple as these experiments were, they were the beginning of a great research, which answers some present questions de- cisively.
 Franklin made an experiment towards knocking the life out of half dozen men at once by an electrical charge sent through the heads of the subjects of the experiment. He says of the effect upon the men, who stood in circle, each with his hand upon his neighbours head: "They all dropped together. When they got up they all declared they had not felt any stroke, and wondered how they came to fall" A young woman, who was receiv- ing electrical treatment under Franklin's direction, accidentally took the charge in her head, and of her case Franklin says "She dropped, but instantly got up again, complaining of nothing" He adds of all such cases: "A person so struck sinks down doubled, or folded together, as it were, the joints losing their strength and stiffness at once, so that he drops on the spot where he stood instantly, and there is no previous staggering, nor does he ever fall lengthwise." The kind of collapse l observed by Franklin was precisely as if the person became like bag of water and slumped right down. The charge that passes through the system appears to l aIa of nervous, muscular or other energy, both that that serves the body and that that serves the mind, provided the brain re- ceives the charge. The sweep is so instant and perfect that the subject not only does not know what hurt him, but does not so much as know, even under a charge that drops him all of heap, that he is hurt. How he instantly recovers if the charge is 8 light one, we must leave to another oc- oasion for explanation. What we need to note here is that very small charge, sent through the brain, clears the living and thinking animal of both life and mind, ab solutely preventing either pain or con sciousness, for the instant of the charge. Such charge made continuous prepares the way with absolute mercifulness fol whatever more violent charge the execu ton of death may require. Of this there can be no possible doubt, no matter what may be the result of numberless accidents or trials not involving charge through the brain
 Of charge accidentally received bJ Franklin through his arms and body-f charge from two six gallon jars, the ac count that he gives is this: 1T felt what I know not how we'll to describes uni versal blow throughout my whole body from head to foot, which seemed within a, we'll as without. I did not fall, but sup pose should have been knocked down if had received the stroke in my head" fuller account is as follows: t'He inad vertently received the stroke of two of tn, jars through his arms and body, wher they were very near fully charged. | seemed to him a universal blow through out the body from head to foot, and wa. followed by violent quick trembling ir the trunk which went off gradually in few seconds. It was some minutes befor, he could reeollect his thoughts SO as tc know what was the matter; for he did no see the flash, though his eye was on tn, spot of the prime conductor, from whenc, it struck the back of his hand; nor did h, hear the crack, though the by-stander
 said it was loud one; nor did he particu larly feel the stroke on his hand. thougl
 he afterwards found it had raised a swell
 ing there of the bigness of half a pisto
 bullet, His arms and the back of tn
 neck felt somewhat numbed the remainde
 of the evening, and his breast was sore fo
 a week after, as if it had been bruised. D.
 The sensations which Franklin had un der this charge came after the charge, no with it. If the charge had been grea , enough to kill him he not only would no have known the after sensations, but h
 would not have seen, heard or felt any thing. The subject of a killing charg r cannot possibly know anything about il no matter what sign of hurt it may leave
 or what appearance of conscious suffering as contortion, convulsion of the muscula system, or terrible rigor, there may b