Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-06-15
The Secret of the Scaffold.
From Johu A. Spring.

From Jonu "A. spring
 Velpean, without answering, took from his pocket case small lancet with which he split open the canvass of the prisoners jacket at the left wrist and felt of his pulse. After a moment he said:
 Monsieur de La Pommerais, your pulse indicates to me rare composure and steadiness under the circumstances. The purpose of this interview (which must be kept absolutely secret) has for it's object a sort of offer which, even though addressed to a physician of your eneggy, to mind we'll versed in the positive convictions of our science and lacking altogether all chimerical fear of death, might yet appear to con- tain 8 certain: degree of criminal folly or mockery. But, l think we know our selves; I request you therefore to give to my proposal your careful considera- tion, no matter how disconcerting or giddy it may appear at first."
 "You have my full attention" answer ed La Pommerais.
 "You cannot but be aware" continu- ed Velpean, ''that one of the most in- ieresting questions of modern phy siology consists in knowing, if any spark of memory, of mental reasoning, of actual susceptibility of impression, remeins in the human braln after the head has been severed from the body?"
 At this unexpected proposition La Pommerais gave a start, but quickly re- covering said:
 "At the very moment you entered, doctor, my mind was strongly occupied with this very question which of course is just now doubly interesting to me-" 'Have you read the works written upon this matter by Soemmering de Sic, de Sedillot. de Bichat and the more modern authOrs?"
 "Undoubt and l have also been present at one of your lectures upon the body of aguillotined man."
 "Ah! let us then proceed.-Have you formed any exact opinion, from the surgical point of view, upon the guillo- tine?"
 La Pommerais, fixing Velpean steadily with his eyes, answered coldly.
 "No sir."
 "I have studied the apparatus today with the greatest care," continued doc tor Velpean with an indifferent business like air. "It is I must acknowledge, a perfect instrument. The knife blade acts at the same time as wedge, a scythe and mace or sledge; it separates by a slsnting cut the head of man from his body in the third of a second. The beheeded man can therefore not suffer any more from the shock of this lightn- ing-like stroke, than soldier can feel who on the battle field has his arm carried of by canon ball. The sen- sation on account of the rapidity of the act, is void, or, let us say, quite ob- scure."
 "There is perhaps an after-pain, '' said La Pommerais; "there always re- mains the two fresh wounds! Is it not Julie Fontenelle who, giving her reasons asks, if not this very quickness ot the stroke causes more painful consequences than the execution by the sword or axe?"
 "Berard has disposed finally of this womans arguments which are really no more than a vagary or chimerical idea, " answered Velpean. "I am fully convinc ed (and my conviction is based upon a hundred experiments and the most care ful observations), that the instsntane- Ou6 56pdIbIlOu Ol bDc AcdQ lnC body, produces in the decapitsted per son instantly the most complete anes- thetic syncope. This immediate syncope alone, produced by the loss of four or five lities of blood, eiected with great force from the aeteries, should be suffi- ent to convince the most sceptic. As to the unconscious trembling of the car nal machine, too suddenly stopped in it's usnal motion, it is no more proof of suffering than the palpitations of an amputated leg, for instance, whose muscles and nerves contract, but with out causing any suffering. I maintain that in the nervous excitement of un- certainty and unsteadiness, Tn the solemnity of the fatal preparations end in the sudden start at the early morning hour consists all of the pretended sui fering. The amputation cannot but be imperceptible, the real pain but imsgin- ary. What! SO violent a stroke on the head is not only not felt, but cannot even leave a trace of consciousness from it's shock, ,-so simple a lesion of the vertebrae is followed by complete atax; of insensibility-and even the sepsra- tion of the head, the severing of the spine the interruption of the organic harmony between the heart and the brain, should not suffice to paralyze even to the inmost center of a human being, every sensation, even the vaguest of pain? Impossible! inadmissible! and you know 1t as well as l."
 "I hope SO, at least, even more than you, sir," answered La Pommerais.
 'It IS not the fear of material physi- cal suffering that l entertain. Such suffering, If it exists at all would pass away quite rapidly, being stifled by the invading influence of Approaching death. I repeat, that is not what fear. It is another thing"
 "Will you try to explain?" said Vel- pean.
 "Listen," muttered La Pommerais after 8 few moments of silence. "The organs of memory and will power (if they are located in the human body Tn the same lobes where we have found them to be in the dog), these organs. l say, are not touched by the knife of the guillotine"
 After short pause he continued: "We have discovered in our scientific researches too many former errors, as alarming as they were iDcomprehensl- ble, for me to be easily convinced of the immediate unconsciousness of a decapi- tated person. According to the legends how many heads, being addressed, have turned their gaze towards the person addressing them? Memory of nerves! reflex motions? Vain wordsl-Call to your memory the head of that sailor, who at the clinique of Brest, an hour and half alter decspitation, bit in two by a mouvement of his jaws, perhaps voluntary, lead pencil placed between theml I select only this example from among thousand. The real question then remains to know if, yes or no, 1t was this mans ''self," his will still acting in the severed head, performed the act after the cessation of the syncope, upon which you lay such great stress. "The ''self" exists only in the entity of the body" replied Velpean. EGT ba cpipal narr0w is a nrOl0pOatiOn