West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1900-01-25

fhladelphia, Ia, Jan. i3.-When the
negro policy dealer, Robert w. Brown, who
murdered his wife, Lucinda, more than
year ago, was being dragged to the gallows
in Moyamensing prison yesterday, he shud-
deringly shrieked
"My body will SO 10 the dissecting table
to the dissecting table !"
His religious advisers admonished him TO
think of his soul and not of his body.
Pleading for delay for both soul and body,
the wretchcd siabber fell through the fatal
trap at the very moment when he turned his
head to implore the keeper at his side for
more time to speak.
In this act the knot back of his left car
slipped TO the base of the brain, midway be-
tween the ears and consciousness expired
instantaneously at the end of the rope.
There were those who waited, in the in
terest of science, TO give the murderer his
wished-for opportunity to complete his sus-
pended speech. Not second was wasted
after he was pronounced dead. An ambu-
lance, with Changing bell and the right of
way, flew through the streets TO the Jeffer-
son College. In ten minutes after he was
legally dead he was resting on table in the
physiological laboratory.
Around the table were three of the most
famous psychologists of the scientific world.
They were Drs. Judson Deland, Albert r..
Brubaker and A. Hewson. DIR. Deland had
charge Of the demonstration.
,s
inanimate body
For an answer to this question the three
scientists devoted their energies and the re-
sources Of their skill and genius.
They had all taught that certain nerve
centres controlled motion and action. In
that eminent body, the College of Physic-
ians of Philadelphia, of which the professors
are members, the theory has often been adj
vanced that there is no physiological neces-
sity for early death. Here was a subject
dead to all ordinary tests. Was he scicntih.
cally dead
A sharp wire, charged with electricity,
was applied TO the various nerve centres of
the body and brain. A superstitious layman
would have been Mortified at the result.
Brown raised first his right arm and then his
left. His head moved. Ills mouth witch
ed in conyulsiye grin. The chords of the
neck swelled and the mouth opened as If he
would complete his interrupted speech ON
the seaffold. The hands clinched one after
the other. A leg was drawn up and then
extended.
Increasingly the electric wire prodded
centre after centre in the nervous organism
One would have thought that a new Caglios.
tro was at work. At fresh touch from the
thaumaturgist plying the needle the body sal
upright.
Amazing enough was all this. There wat
more. The eyes opened. The heart beat
There seemed 10 be breath, for the organs
of respiration were agitated.
Would he walk Would he talk9
But, placed on the floor, the body fcl
back limp. The lips opened without sound
Science had demonstrated wonders, but III,
could not be brought back with motion. The
soul had gone beyond returning breath
The electric needle had made Brown dc
everything but walk and talk
In less than an hour the nerve centres
themselves became dead. The three scien
lists surrendered the effort at resuscitation
The limp body Of the murderer was removed
70 the anatomical department on the tor
| floor