The Terror of the Guillotine.

Manawatu Herald, 10 December 1898, Page 2

The Terror of the Guillotine.

♦ _____! L id no new theory that the French^H method of capital punishment is nol^^| the merciful thing it was intended toflNj Dr Cinel, who how reopens tjjHHI question, is a Parisian of high repute! He has been making experiments along the line of his theory for a long time, and in a oareful report, which is now the medical sensation of Europe, hn announces these positive conclusions : — 1. Th it the severance of the head from the body of tbe condemned person does not instantly kill him. i 2 Th it for a whole hoar afterward consciousness and sensibility to saff«ring remain in the dissevered head of the victim. 3. That during the hour the executed criminal cati see, hear, smell, nnd think. 4. That complete death does not come to the sufferer until three hoars after his head has dropped into the bapket. Tbe British Medioal Journal re* prints Dr Oinel's report, and the medical world generally is giving it attention. The question iB thus fairly launched, and the fact that so conservative an Eoglish publication as the one named should circulate Dr Cioel's appalling conclusions is a sufficient indication that they cannot be lightly dismissed. About two years a curiously weird guillotine experiment was related in the European papers. A Paris physician arranged to attend the execution of a criminal with whom he was able to make a compact for the express purpose of testing the queltion of consciousness continuing in the head after its severance from tbe body. The terms of the oonpaot were that aft v the knife had fallen and done ita work, the doctor shonld closely watch the face of the victim, and the victim, on his part, should watoh for the face of the doctor, and, if he were able to do so, should wink at the doctor with his right eye. The knife fell, the man's bead rolled into the basket provided for it, the doctor stepped , forward with pager curiosity, and to his horror the right eye in the dissevered head fixsd its gaze upon him, as he turned the head over, and deliberately winked at him, not once, but repeatedly, -wm For fully ten minutes the pbysicia_r*w| stood, rooted to the spot as by a speli 11 and the winks were again and again II distinctly seen. At the end of that 1 time the sensations produced by what he had witnessed sickened him, and be hurried away. Historic confi mation of this incident i 3 given in all the authentic narratives of the execution of Charlotte Corday. Dr Sue, a physician of great eminence in Paris, testified in 1796, before a committee of inquiry, that he was satisfied that life was not instantly, nor quickly, ended by the guillotine. He spoke particularly of ihe case of Charlotte Corday, a_|| giving the strongest evidence on thilUH point. The following is an extraJjjl tak n from Dr Sue's testimony '-—Warn " The countenance of Charhw|l Corday after execution expressed^HH most unqualified marks of -* D^<^HH Mon. Let us look back to the f^HnH che executioner held her head^HHH pended in one hand ; the fa_H^Hn| then pale, but it no sooner- l i^^^HH the slap which the.Banguinary|^Bffl| gave it than both checks visibll^^UM dened. Every speotatator was by the ohange of colour, and with loud murmurs cried dot for vengeance on this cowardly and atrocious* barbarity. It cannot be said that tht*. redness' was caused by the blow, for we all know that no blows will recall anything like colour to the cheeks of a corpse ; besides, this blow w3ft> given on one cheek and the other -qnally reddened. Of the fact that Charlotte Corday*. face blushed deeply crimson on both cheeks after the executioner's assistant struck it on one cheek only with his open hand, there can be po doubt. It is asserted in every account of the scene written at toe ime. Sanson, the celebrated executioner was present on the occasion, though it was one of bis subordinates who committed the outrage on the dissevered head. In his memoirs Sanson himself records the incident, regrets it, and says : " I was afterwards told that the face turned red after receivjjj.' ing the insult." Dr Charles Lancaster, of Plainfield, New Jpr«ey, writes as follows in support of Dr CinePs theory, and in criticism Dr Shrady's assertion that death by decapitation is instantaneous. Dr. Shrady asserts wifch considerable positiveness that death cf the . decapitatpd criminal is instantaneous. Here I differ from hira. It must be. - x remembered that " the Ufa of all fl*s»h is the blood thereof." The ancient Hebrews understood that, and upon it based their rule not to

" eat flesh witb the blood tie c f " Now I believe that so long as thtblood retains any degree of warmth after removal of the head there is, in both head and body, foelirjg and possibility of pain."