GUILLOTINE OR GALLOWS

Dunstan Times, Issue 410, 25 February 1870, Page 4 (Supplement)

GUILLOTINE OR GALLOWS

Although Frenchmen aro Tory fond of comparing their system of execution to that of the gallows, it ha,;, never been satisfactorily proved that the head olous not live after being separated from the body. The doctors Segaret and Sue affirm with reason that pain can be felt for twenty minutes after the execution, and cite the following experiments:—Two human heads were placed in the rays of the sun, and the eyelids which had been opened were immediately shut, and the head, which was experimented upon more than a quarter of an hour after having been separated from the body, turned its eyes when called. Dr. Menossier cites an experiment made on the head of a calf. A calf was hanged in Paris, and its head cut off. The head was immediately placed upon a table. Bating th« first minute all the muscles of the face and neck wero agitated by rapid and irregular convulsions. During the two following minutes the convulsions assumed a different character. The tongue protruded from the mouth, which opened and closed alternately. The nostrils were dilated in a similar manner to those of an animal breathing with difficulty, tho convulsions became more violent on pricking the tongue with a needle. On approaching tho finger to the eye in the direction of the pupil, at tho distance of an inch, the eye closed precipitately, and reopened au instant after, as though it wished to avoid the shock of a foreign body. This experiment was repeated several times, until the eye oniy closed on tho eyelid being touehed. At the end of the fourth minute tho convulsions had entirely ceased, and weroouly renewed on the spinal marrow being pierced at the back of the neck with a dagger, the eye still reui.i'ai g insensible to everything, and at the end of the sixim minute all was over.