The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1900-01-23

NunnAhk hAh -
End of the shock. q
DR.. Richard II. Cunningham, who
Tor years has studied the effects OF
electric shock on men and animals,
believes in electrocution. He does not
believe. however, that the condemned
man becomes unconscious the instant
the man at the switch applies the cur
cent. Il have had as patients" he
says. Electricians who have received
severe shocks in power-house acct
dents. | have talked with men who
have come in contact with live wires
oat of doors, / have examined the
bodies of persons who have met death
by Electricity, some by accident,
some through sentence of the court,
and in the university laboratory |
have made many experiments on ami
mails alive, but under the influence of
ether. OF course, too, | have kept up
with the literature on the subject of
the effects of electricity on man and
beast. These things have been part
of my regular daily work for years,
and | believe that the majority of per-
sons who have died from electric shock
could have been resuscitated had the
proper means been at hand before the
effects of the shock were over. | have
had these means in the laboratory
when experimenting on unconscious
animals. | have had them with a
corps of trained assistants ready to
begin the work of resuscitatiOn at the
exact second necessary. ! do not say
that all this could be part of an m
bulance or drug store outfit. however,
l state what's science can do with a we'll
equipped laboratory and men practiced
in handling such equipment. With
out study and experiment one cannot
learn just how electricity kills a man.
| might 60 to a thousand e%lectrocu-
tons, all of them done thoroughly
with the best possible appliances, and
not get any scientific information as
to just what killed any one of the
condemned men. l should not doubt
that the men wera dead, for l believe
that elec%trocutions Gre effective and
the least evil way of inAicting capt.
tai punishment, but unless | could at
tach the proper physiological appara-
tvs to the person before he received
the current, so that / could record and /
obtain a graphical register of the phe-
nomena that occur during and after
the passage of the current. / should
not gain valuable information.
81 believe those who come to death
through electricity know when the
current enters the body, and are CON
scious of it for a distinctly r~ecogniz-
able space of time. They have time
to think about it, in fact. for a man
can do a lot of thinking in a fifth of a
second. Of course, | did not learn
thls from he animals Il experimental
on, because they were unconscious
some time before the experiment began
as well as during it. | have learned
1t from thoroughly trained and edu-
Gated electricians who have come to
me for treatment, and from such tes-
tmony that other electricians have
read in papers before various scientific
societies. There is a thorough reali-
cation of the fact that the current is
on-that it is going through the
BODY. All who have experienced q
strong shock agree in this.
One cannot say with anything like
the amount of electricity
that went through the body of anv of
these electricians, because it is hard to
say how the contact was. 1t was acct
dental. In a perfect contact the cleo
are against the skin. and the
SKIN is moistened with salt water A
with a dry skin does not receive
electricity as easily as a man whose
KIN is damp. Then clothing may have
interviewed which would have a ten
to refuse a current.
In the laboratory, with everything
IN absolute readiness for resuscita-
tlon, we make an i~ncislon in the side
the animals neck. open a vein and
artery and insert tubes. side bv
sue down into the heart. Into the
artery we force blood just like what
wouid be in the animal naturally. Be-
sldes this We add. in place of tho
lprlm, a solution of salt in warm wa
ter Sometimes it takes an hour or
OF pumping in and pumping ont
Gut at length the heart beats regular
y Il the lungs work naturally once
The same thing could probably
Pc lone with a human being. if n
aau the proper fluid to work in h,s
and arteries"