The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-04-29

JRDAY, APRIL 20, 1895
DEATH NOT CERTAIN.
Murdersrs Killed by Surgeons Knives
and Not BY the Electric Current.
A special dispatch to the San
Francisco Chronicle, from New
York, says one of the most distin-
guished scientific men in France, a
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 per-
son subjected to it may be revived
by means of artificial respiration.
In other words, the criminals who
have been subjected to execution
by electricity in this State have not
been killed by the current, but by
the knives of the physicians who
conducted the autopsies upon
them.
These extraordinary statements
are hardly credible, but it must be
a bold man who would attempt to
assert the contrary to any views to
which Nj. d'Arsonval puts his name
and stamps with his high authori-
ty. A remarkable summary of the
labors of Professor d'Arsonval in
regard to deaths and accidents
caused by high tension currents has
just appeared in the Moniteur In
dustrel. The conclusions deduced
are strongly confirmatory of those
formulated by NJ. d'Arsorval since
1887. Electricity, it is shown, kills
in two ways. First-By producing
mechanical LESSONS of the vessels
and the nervous system. Second
By arresting the great functions,
as in the stoppage of respiration of
the hearts action, or of the ex-
changes between the tissues Of
blood, etc.
The first kind Of death is attend
ant upon lightning and the dis
charges of powerful batteries. tits
seldom encountered in cases Of in
dustrial discharges. The second,
on the contrary, is nearly always
the result of the application of the
latter agency. The practical bearing
of these facts is that while the first
brings about definite death, from
which the subject may be made to
revive by artificial resp iration ifin-
duced Immediately after the shock.
| NJ. d. Arsonval maintains that a
person suffering from an electric
Shock should be treated exactly as
one drowned, and the formula
which he has given to electricians
has called back to life a number o1
men since its publication. NJ. d'Ar'
sonval and Biraud stigmatize the
putting of criminals to death by
electric shock as a complicated
barbarous and reliable proceeding,
and they challenge the American
doctors to practice artificial respi-
ration upon a criminal after his so.
called "death" by electricity.
NJ. d'Arsonval maintains that the
use of dynamite electricity pro-
duces in man a kind of an@s-
thesia, under the cover of which he
is mangled alive, and must be Sc
mangled in order to become q
corpse. His experiments 60 to
show that while the New York
method is far from being certain,
it is also brutal in the extreme, and
is open to the doubt of death in
every case, namely, that of killing
man or woman upon whom the Law
has passed sentence of death. II
: NJ. d'Arsonval is to be believed ev
cry man who has been subjected tc
the process in this State has proba
bly, been killed at the inquest.
With a view to answering the
questions here raised, a reporter
called upon several electrical and
medical authorities and submitted
to them the views and experiments
of M. d'Arsonval. Joseph Wetzler
editor the Electric Engineer, said
II believe that M. d'Arsonval't
statements are thoroughly vel
!. founded. l believe, further, that
execution by electricity is horribl,
cruel"
Other experts who were inter
viewed held substantially the same
opinion.
Did Not Like the Weapons.
The recent absurd revival of duel
, ing in several countries of the con
tinent of Europe recalls q stor.
!, which was the delight of Berlil
some years ago and which capital.
+ satirized this barbarous custom
n vy:.oLo- <ho ovosnonk man n