The Portland daily press., 1894-11-10
DOES ELECTRICITY KILL.
DIR. Gibbons Says 1t Merely Suspends
Animation i'm Its Victim.

An Interesting Experiment on an Electro
cuted Criminal-Period of Apparent
Death May Last for Several Hours.
Can man who has been shocked to ap-
parent death by electricity be resuscitated
through artificial respiration? Does cleo
trocution kill? asks writer in the New
York World. Here is the opinion of a physi-
clan who has made some remarka BILE
experiments in this line OF investigation:
Criminals 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 lin b
from limb.
"Murderers Taylor and johnson, who
expiated their crimes in Auburn Prison,
did NOT die from the electric shock ad-
ministered to them.
"John johnson, who sat in the SO
called fatal chair on Nov IA last was
partially resuscitated by me two hours
after the current had been applied.
"He breathed. He lived. One hour
later Johnson's body was given over to
the autopsy"
This startling statement is made by
DR.. P.J. Gibbons, an eminent throat and
nose specialist of Syracuse, N. Y. He
maintains that those who have been
shocked to apparent death by electricity
have really been N state of suspended
animation. He claims that their lives
might have been saved by means of arti-
fetal respiration.
Furthermore, applications have been
laid and are now before Gov. Flower re-
questing his sanction for an experiment
upon Charles F. Wilson, now in Auburn
Prison under sentence Of DEATH
Should DIR. Gibbons be accorded per-
mission to apply his treatment to the
body of the convict, when sentence ac-
cording to the laws of New York State
has been carried out, he claims that he
will restore the life electricity is sup
posed to have snuffed out He only
stipulates that the wretched Wilson shall
not again be subject to a second So
called execution.
EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS.
Physicians, scientists aud electricians
have been battling with the question as
to whether it is possible to revive men
who have been subjected to high voltage
shocks ever since lightning has been
bottled. DR.. Gibbons claims to have
solved che problem. He has labored
long and untiringly. ppcas
He has experimental largely on all
classes of inferior animals. He has even
now in his employment an assistant who
lives to tell of $500 volts he received in
Cleveland, o., in 1885. And he asserts
that had he not been peremptorily
stopped in his operations by Warden
Stout, johnson, the electrocuted MUIR
derer, might have been alive today. He
claims that the voltage given criminals
in State prisons is insufficient to produce
death.
Ii DR.. Gibbons assertions should prove
to be true, and he exhibits the utmost
confidence in the soundness of his theory
and the value of his discovery, then this
Syracuse physician has conferred SUBJ
stantial boon upon humanity. Men
have been shocked to death with alarm
ing frequency of late. The universal
use of electricity makes the danger to
workers with the marvellous fluid an
important factor in our days. Scarcely
week passes but some death attributed
to contact with a live wire is recorded.
According to his statement DR.. Gibbons
has applied to cats, dogs, sheep andpeat-
tie from ] 800 to 2, 500 volts, which is as
deadly a current as that employed in
the electrocution of criminals, and these
animals have permanently recovered as
full possession of their faulties as before
the current was turned into their sys-
TENS The periods of suspended ANNA
ton Of seeming death have varied from
a few minutes to several hours.
MURDERER JOHNSON'S CASE.
The story told to World reporter by
the Syracuse doctor of the circumstant es
attending the execution Of Murderer
John johnson is particularly graphic
and startling in the extreme.
When the wretched man saw the light
of day on Nov.14, 80, he knew that before
the SUE had risen high into the heavens
his eternal night must come. The exact
time for his execution was kept secret,
but an inkIing of the hour had been
given by Warden Stout to the invited
physicians and membe of the press.
ii assembled promptly with mingled
feeling of interest and awe.
DR.. Gibbons, who was OF the party,
had long held an opinion that life could
be restored after a severe electric shock
by means of artificial respiration, in a
Similar manner to that SO often success
Jul in cases Of supposed drowning.
Many notables were gathered within
that death chamber, and when the con-
demned man had been adjusted in the
fatal chair, all waited with beating
hearts and bated breath for the deadly
current to be turned on.
At a given signal 1.740 volts passed
throu0h rha murderer,S frana ond +b;s