The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-04-24
DEATH is NOT CERTAIN.

So Says q French Expert of the Electrical
Chat In New York.
New York, April 23.-One Of the most
distinguished scientific men in France, q
man with regard to whose honor and ability
there is no question, has just asserted
that the electric shock of New York's penal
law does not kill. He maintains that the
current simply brings about apparent
death, and that the person subjected to it
may be revived by means of artificial respi-
ration. In other words, the criminals who
have been subjected to execution by elec-
tricity in this state have not been killed by
tue current, but by the knives of the phys
icians who conducted she autopsies upon
them.
These extraordinary statements are hardly
credible, but he must be q bold mar who
would attempt to assert the contrary to
any views to which M. d'Arsonval puts his
name and stamps with his high authority.
A remarkable summary of the lahors of
and accidents caused By high tension cur
rents has Just appeared in tho Moniteur
Industriel. The conclusions doducsd are
strongly contirmaaory OF those formulated
by M. d'Arsonval since 1887. Electricity.
it is shown, kills in two Ways. First, by
producing mechanical LESSONS of the vessels
and the nervous system. Second, by ar
resting the great functions, ms in the stop
page Of respiration of the heart g action, or
of the exchanges between the tissues Of
blood, etc.
The frat kind of death is attendant upon
lightning and the discharges of powerful
batteries. 1t ia seldom encountered IN
cases of industrial dischsrges. The sec"
ond. on the contrary, is nearly always tbs
result of the application Of the latte,
agency. The practical bearing of these
fncts is that while the first brings about
dchnite death the effect of the secoud mag
be n state Of apparent death. from which
the subject may be made to revive by nr,i.
fetal respiration il lnduced immediately
after the shock.
M. d'Arsonyal maintains TINT n person
suffering from an electric shock ahould be
treated exactly as ono rowned, and thu
formula which he has given to electri-
clans has called back to life q number OF
men since its publication. Dim. carson.
val and Rirnud Bti9mati2e the putting O
criminals to death by electric shock aB
complicated, barbarous and unreliable pro
ceeding, and they challenge the American
Loctors to practice artificial respiration
uyon Il criminal after his so-called death
by electricity.
M. d'Arsouyal maintains that the use o
dynamic electricity produces in man II kins
of sn:esthesiA, under the cover OF which HI
is manRled alive. and must be 80 rlanglet
in order to really become a corpse. His e1
periments 90 to show that while the New
York method ia far from being %oertain. 1t !
brutal in the extreme, and open to thu
doubt of death in every case, namely. tina
of killing man or woman upon whom th
Inv has passed sentence of death. II M
d'Arsonval ia to be believed every man wh'
has been subjected to the process III thi
state has probably been killed at the in
quest.
With p view to answering the question
here raised. a reporter called upon severn
electrical and medical authorities and sub
mitted to theus the viewa and experiment
o. NJ. d'Arsonval. Joseph Wctzler, edito
Of the Electrical Engineer, said: II be
iisye that NJ. d'Arsonval's statements ar
thoroughly well founded. l believe. fur
thsr, that execution by electricity is horri
bly, cruel"
Other experts who were interviewed bel
substantially the same opinion.