EXPERIMENTS IN HANGING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3598, 23 January 1883, Page 4

EXPERIMENTS IN HANGING.

The editor of the American Medical Ledger has devoted a long article to the subject of the sensations experienced by one on Avhom the capital sentence is inflicted by hanging. No man has. of course, returned from the dead: so that of such sensations avc have till now known little or nothing. But this is no longer the case. Death by hanging is, Aye are assured, not at all unpleasant, but rather the contrary. If the neck is broken death is instantaneous. If the vertebral column is unbroken, death comes to the culprit in a state of coma. The conclusion is not imaginary, but derived from experiments. A notorious character named "Cuss" Judson has been sentenced to death on three different occasions ; but each time the hangman failed, either from Avanf of ability or from some peculiarity in the make of the patient's neck-, to carry out the sentence, and the man got off. It Avas evident his experience would form a supplement to Victor Hugo's "La Derniere Nuit d'uu Condamme." Accordingly, the editor of the Medical Ledger iniervicAved "Cuss," and cross-examined him. Judson affirmed solemnly that " the moments he was dangling in the air avctc among the most agreeable he had twer experienced." He declared that "colored lights appeared to dance before his eyes. Noble landscapes extended themselves around him. Noav he imagined he Avas the spectator of a magnificent display of fire-AA-orks, or now again hcAvas listening to exquisite music." Finally, he asserted that the first moment lie felt pain Avas when they cut the rope and restored him to unexpected freedom.—London Globe.