The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-07-26
EUrHANAs1A ron MUEDERERs.
An Ohio Professors Scheme for killing
Them Painlessly and Unawares.

Inc recent unsuccessful eleclroCutloh
of DR.. Buchanan in New York, and the
proposition sprung in the last legisla-
ture to adopt electricity as a means of
executing the death sentences in the
State, has led to an investigation at
the Ohio State University of the ques-
tion of reform in capital punishment,
Prof. B. f. Thomas, who occupies the
chair Of Physics, and who has an in
innate technical knowledge of the ac-
ton of the electrical fluid, has been
giving the subject much consideration.
He is of the opinion that electrocution,
however successful, may not be pain
less. On the other hand he believes
that an absolutely painless death
could be caused by the admiministra-
ton of carbonic acid gas In a proper
manner, Here is what he has to say as
la result of his investigation:
Late discoveries in anaesthetics af-
ford wide opportunities to persons who
desire to humanitarianize capital pun
ishment, and prisons present an almost
limitless field for the selection of an
agent that will infiict quick, painless.
and absolutely certain death. Aconite,
prussic acid, or almost any one Of a
dozen chemicals, will accomplish the re-
suit without any of the uncertainty,
and with none of the possible pain that
is attached to the present methods,
"Carbonic acid gas is perhaps better
than all, for under Its influence the
criminal simply would sleep his life
peacefully AWAY, absolutely without
pain, and, with proper arrangements,
without any Of the agonizing foreknow-
ledge of the hour and minute of his exc
cution. I believe it is generally recog-
nized that simple removal from society
is the only object aimed at by the cap
ital punishment laws of civilized ma
TONS and, that being the case the most
humane methods should be selected"
Then Prof Thomas told of personal
experience in which the possibilities Of
carbonic acid gas as a death-produc-
ing agent were clearly demonstrated.
1t was at the Worlds Fair, and the
professor had been stopping temporarily
in an apartment house, where not
long before a young man had narrowly
escaped death in a most mysterious
way. The young man had gone to the
bathroom, which was equipped with a
water heater of peculiar construction,
but provided with no means for the es-
cape of the products of combustion re-
sulting from the flame of the heater.
Not long after he had closed the doors
of the bathroom, a loud noise, as of
some one falling to the floor, was heard.
The door was broken open and the oc-
cupant of the room found unconscious.
| He was resuscitated with great diff
Guilty. A similar experience befell a
young lady who subsequently occupied
| the same room. 1t was found that both
were victims of carbonic acid gas.
| Prof Thomas inspected the bath room
and found, as has been stated, that
there was no means provided for the es-
cape of the products of combustion gen
| Grated by the heater. In other words
| the carbonic acid gas from the flame
| settling first to the floor of the room,
| finally had arisen as it Increased in
| volume until it had reached the level
| Of the bathtub, and then the nostrils of
the person occupying the room. Both
| the young man and the young woman
| were practically dead, at least so far
| as any sensation was concerned, when
| found. The professor questioned each
| of them, and both said they had exper-
| fenced no pain whatever prior to the
| lapse of consciousness. There had
been a slight feeling of 1assitude and
! some dizziness, and then came an alb
| solute blank, without the smallest sug-
| gestion of fear or pain. This uncon-
| csiousness would have meant death tc
| both the victims had not friends dis
covered them in time and applied re-
| storatives, from which Prof Thomas
| reasons that carbonic acid gas, accord
| ing to these two cases which came
| under his personal observation, is 6
certain and an absolutely painless
agent of heath.
IF we are to change the present
| method of infiicting capital punish
ment," said he, "let us secure the pass.
| age Of some law that will kill the
criminal without either physical Of
mental agony, method that shall ht
quick, painless, and certain, and at the
same time humane. If cerbonic acit
gas were to be the agent selected, Z
cell could be fitted up at the peniten
tiary with a pipe connection for the
introduction of the gas from the plac,
of its generation near by, and proper
covering for the doors and windows
so that the gas could not escape during
the execution. Then the law could b,
made to provide a sort of indefinite
sentence by fixing the date of the ex
ecution between two certain days e
week or two apart, the exact time t.
be selected by the warden. The crimi.
nal could be placed in this prepared
cell and given no intimation of thu
exact time Of his death, and thus b.
spared the agony of daily and hourl.
expectation. When the warden saw
proper, and probably while the crimi
nal was sleeping peacefully, he coulC
have valve turned in the pipe through
! which the gas was to pass and tn
thing were done, for the sleep which
the condemned man was enjoying
would have no awakening. Dealt
would have come to him painlessl,
and without his foreknowledge of it:
4 81,