The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-11-21
MURDERERS REVIVED
FROM ELECTRIC DEATH,

Can a man who has been shocked to ap-
parent death by electricity be resuscitated
through artificial respiration? Does electro
cution kill?
Here is the opinion of a physician who
has made some remarkable experim in
this line of investigations:
terminals supposed to have been exc
cuted by electricity were in reality killed by
the knives of dissecting surgeons. They
were not dead when, for scientific purposes,
they. were cut and carved limb from limb.
"Murderers Taylor and johnson, who eX-
plated their crimes in Auburn prison, did
not die from the electric shock administered
to them.
John Johnson, who sat in the so-called
fatal chair on Nov. II last partially
resuscitated by me two hours after the cur
rent had been applied.
He breathed. He lived. One hour later
Johnson's body was given over to the au-
topsy
This startling statement is made by DR..
p. j. Gibbons, an eminent throat and nose
specialist of Syracuse, n. Y, to the New
York World. He maintains that those who
have been shocked to apparent death by
electricity have really been in a state of
susp ended animation He claims that their
lives might have been saved by means Of
artificial respiration.
Furthermore, applcat lions have been laid
and are now before Gov. Flower requesting
his sanction for experiment upon Charles
f. Wilson now in Auburn prison under
sentence of death.
Should DR.. Gibbons be accorded permits
sion to apply his treatment to the body of
the convict. when sentence according to
the laws of New York state has been car
ried out. he claims that he will restore the
life electricity is supposed to have snuffed
out. He only stipulates that the wretched
Wilson shah not again be subject to a sec
end so-called execution.
EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS.
Physicians. scientists and electricians have
be N battling with the question as to wheth-
err it is possible to revive men who have
been subjected to high voltage shocks ever
since lightning has ben bottled. DR.. Glib
hons claims TO have solved the problem
He has labored long and untiringly.
He has experim nted largely on all
classes of inferior animals He has even
now in his employment an assistant who
lives to tell of 1900 volts he received in
Cleveland Ohio. in 1885. And he asserts
that had he not b5en peremptorily stopped
in his opera tons by Warden Stout John
son, the electrocuted murderer, might have
been alive today. He claims that the volt
age given criminals in state prisons is in
sufficient to produce death.
If Dr.. Gibbons assertions should prove to
be true. and he exhibits the utmost con-
fidence in the soundness of his theory and
cuse physician has conferred d substantial
boon upon humanity. Men have been shock
cd to death with alarming frequency OF late
The universal use of electricity max IS the
danger 10 workers with the marvellous
fluid an important factor in our DAYS
Scarcely a week passes but some death
attributed to contact with live wire is re-
corded.
According to his statement. Dr. Gibbons
has applied to cats, dogs, sheep and cat
-lA . ,-.lt H., =,
ly current as that employed in the cleo
trocution Of criminals, and these animals
have permanently recovered full posses
sion of their faculties as before the current
was turned into their systems. The periods
of suspended animation or seeming death
have varied from d few minutes to several
hours.
MURDERER JOHNSON'S CASE.
The story told to a World reporter by the
Syracuse doctor of the circumstances at
tending the execution Of Murderer John
Johnson is particularly graphic and start
ling in the extreme.
When the wretchsd man saw the light
of day Nov. IA, 1893, he knew that be-
fore the sun had risen high into the heavens
his eternal night must come. The exact
time of his execution was kept secret, but
an nkling of the hour had been given by
Warden Stout to the invited physicians
and members of the press. All assembled
promptly with mingled feelings of interest
and awe.
DR.. Gibbons. who was of the party, had
long held an opinion that life could be re-
stored after a severe electric shock by
means OF artificial respiration, in a SIM
liar manner to that often successful in
cases Of supposed drowning. Many nota-
bes were gathered within that death cham
Der, and when the condemned man had
been adjusted in the fatal chair, ell waited
with beating hearts and bated breath for
the deadly current to be turned
At given signal l., $50 volts passed through
the murderer'S frame, and this gigantic
pressure was continued for four seconds
when it was reduced TO 200 volts. In a lit
tie while the unknown electrocutor was
again signaled to repeat the operation, and
once more the form of Johnson stiffened
agony.
He was pronounced to be dead and the
witnesses to the sad spectacle filed out of
the chamber. Two hours later DR.. Glib
bons gained adnlittance to the place where
the so-called corpse was laid, and COM
menced to respiratory methods to re-
suscitate the dead man.
THE BOSOM HEAVED.
He had no Instruments He had not then
invented his patent bellows which is to be
used for imitation and exhaustion of the
air in the lungs, and which it's chief
value hinges. He not therefore, so
successful as he could have wished. But
binary means necessary for resuscitaton
he was rewarded by a distinct and unde-
niable though slight upheaval of the vic
TINS bosom.
Who shall say the exact moment when
life passed from the body? Was that man
absolutely dead beyond recall? Had the
mysterious germ which we call life passed
entirely beyond the reach of science? Be
this as it may, his bosom heaved.
Warden Stout came in and stood aghast.
The doctor was forcibly informed that all
operations must be Immediately discontin-
ued. Thus was interrupted experiment
that might have been hailed as marvellous
by the entire scientific world. Very few
of the assembled physicians understood
what had taken place behind those closed
doors, and before another hour Johnson's
body was given over to the autopsy.
1t was this extraordinary incident that
caused DR.. Gibbons to make the means
Of possible resuscitation of those supposed
to be dead by electricity his chief study,
and led him to test his theory and his in
ventions by numberless experiments on
inhabitants of the animal kingdom. With
these he has had remarkable success and
demonstrated beyond a doubt that the
prove that death by electricity as popu-
larly understood, is nothing more than ar
rested or suspended animation.
When the World reporter called upon Dr.
Gibbons in his office at Syracuse he found
him to be a man of majestic and imposing
appearance. He has a bold forehead, in
dicative of large brain power, and highly
intellectual and attractive eyes. He is of
stalwart frame and erect build, standing
over six feet high. His hair is let black,
though marked in numerous places with
l anolye rf III