Electric Chair Does Not Kill, Says Famous Pathologist

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 18 November 1927, Page 8

Electric Chair Does Not Kill, Says Famous Pathologist

aHE grim probability that men electrocuted in the death chair are alive for several minutes after execution, and may even be conscious, until they receive the quietus by doctors, was set out in startling relief by an eminent British pathological expert after the Sacco-Vanzetti executions.

The rope and the drop and the French guillotine, are more reliable and humanitarian, says this expert. The electric chair is a barbarous method ot execution. Men who are supposed to be done to death by means of electrocution are, as a matter of fact, killed by the doctors who perform an autopsy on them after their supposed execution, said this expert. This 1b the core of a sensational indictment of execution methods In the United States which has been made by Dr Claudius, a famous Danish physiologist, who goes on to make the statement, startling to the great majority of people, that most persons, when taken from the electric ’.hair, could be restored to life. "I have had considerable experl-

ence of electrocution In England, and the conclusion I have come to is that the Danish expert is correct in every one of his contentions. Electricity does not kill! I have seen cases where a high-frequency electric current had passed through the bodies of men working with electric cables, and where apparent death had ensued. Yet an hour or an hour and a-halt later, after artificial respiration by a doctor, life was restored. Only Apparently Dead

"I encountered one remarkable case in which a man suffering from electric shock showed no signs ot life after an hour’s work to revive breathing and heart action. The doctor gave ip the task in despair but the man’s workmates persisted in their efforts ’or another two hours, at the end of which ths man was restored to life. He is probably alive to-day. The ■fleet of electricity on the human body is a curiously complicated subject. Apparently it is not the strength of '.he current, but its amperage. Cases are recorded in which a current of • ,000 volts passed through a human ody without any ill-effect. In other

cases death resulted after the shock of a current of 90 volts.

Hanging—Or the Chair

"Before we can make any comparison of our method of capital punishment with the American system, we must have some idea of the physiological effect of the two modes of execution.

"When a doctor examines the body of a man who has died by electric shock, provided that no part of the body has come into contact with the fuse point of the circuit, he will find no external marks, nor will the internal organs reveal any changes or lesions visible either to the naked eye or to the microscope. If be did not know how the death canfe about he would not be able to offer any opinion as to its cause. It is when this tact—the complete absence of organic injury or disturbance —is remembered, that one is driven to agree with Dr. Claudius that the electric chair may lead to a state of unconsciousness, in which breathing has ceased and the beat cannot be felt, but that the actual death is only brought about by the doctors performing the post-mortem. Medical science believes that the effect of an electric shock on the body is to induce a paralysis of the brain centres. These centres are said to be “inhibited" by the current, and when they cease to act the heart and lungs stop. But, remember, we can not prove that this is what happens—we can only guess it from analogies For example, there is the analogy of the apparently drowned man who is taken out of the water. Many of us have seen such a case The man Is seemingly drowned. He has no heartbeat, and his lungs make no effort to breathe. Yet after prolonged artificial respiration life is restored. The outward symptoms in this case closely resemble those in the case of the electrocuted man. That is why we' say that when a man is electrocuted he is not dead although if attempts to restore life are not made within an hour or so after the shock death will supervene through decomposition. When an executed man is taken from the electric chair, he exhibits no sign of life. Yet how do we know he does not feel pain? A drunken man is perfectly conscious of what he does while he is drunk. He may act stupidly and illogically but he is aware of what he is doing. Yet when he wakes after sleeping off the effects of his orgy he is completely unconsci ous of what he has done. He forgets but he knew what he was doing at the time he did it.

We simply cannot tell what the electrocuted man feels. There is at least one great advantage which our British method of execution possesses over the American method—death is certain, and unconsciousness is instantaneous.

All Feeling Ceases

The death of a hanged man Is brought about by dislocation and fracture of the spinal column high up in the neck The jerk which the release of the trapdoor gives him causes instant unconsciousness. To all intents the man is dead at once. Final death follows from a combination of coma and asphyxia In from two to three minutes. But we can be absolutely certain that all sensibility, all power to feel, is instantly lost.