The Halifax Comet. — 1894-01-06 (Halifax, West Yorkshire, England)

THE PLEASURES OF BEING HANGED.  OME years ago a Frenchman wrote a learned work to prove that death by hanging is the most pleasant and desirable of all modes of quitting the world • that it is not painful, as is vulgarly supposed; but, on the contrary, excites delightful emotions in the mind from the accumulation of blood in the vessels of the brain. Although the Statements of French specialists are not always to be implicitly relied upon we End that those who have tried it substantially confirm the conclusions arrived at, theoretically, by this one. Lord Bacon, in his " Historia Vita) et fortis," speaks of a friend who was particularly desirous of ascertaining whether criminals, undergoing the extreme penalty of the law, were subject to much pain. For this purpose he threw' himself, with a rope round his neck, off a stool, imagining that he could easily remount when he had had enough. Delightful sensations immediately succeeded the fall, but were very transient, and loss of consciousness soon ensued. Had it not been for, the timely arrival of another Person, the adventurous experimentalist Would have been killed. Fadere puts on record a similar case, the actor being one of his fellow students. This Young man, after an argument on the course of death by hanging, resolved to gratify his Curiosity by passing a ligature round his own neck, and attaching it to a hook over the door. To accomplish his purpose he had raised himself on tip-toe and then gradually brought his heels to the ground. He soon / st all consciousness, but was cut down by a companion, who discovered him in a state of insensibility very soon after, and who, by the prompt application of remedial measures, managed to bring him round. He stated on recovery that the first effect he experienced Nceas the appearance of a dazzling light before Ills eyes, accompanied by a tingling in the tars, and very pleasant sensations. The case is recorded of a man who took the 'most exquisite delight in what we should call 'torturing himself. He had ofteir expressed a wish to be hanged, and one clay tried the experiment. He procured a piece of cord, attached it to the ceiling, and suspended himself from it. Fortunately he was cut down by his servant before life was extinct. Re said he felt during the few moments he was hanging, "a thrilling delight, which no • language could convey anything like an -adequate idea of." Among Cowley's papers found after death Was one which gave a full account of the three attempts at suicide made by the poet, 'one of them being by hanging. It does not show that the process was fraught with delightful sensations to him, but it does show that it was painless, and so mention of it will not be out of place here. Cowley says that he suspended himself over his chamber door in the Temple, and became perfectly insensible. He only recollected a flash of light appearing before his eyes, unattended by any Painful feelings whatever. His weight caused him to fall on "to the floor at last; there he was found, and after, a time recovered. Cases; are on record of hanged individuals  r.B . ..,1 ....7, t. Kk 0,,, ~..1 #4 A 1 .7--iv_44; -----„------