GALVANIC PUNISHMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue v, 6 January 1870, Page 3

GALVANIC PUNISHMENT.

o A* writer under the nom de plume of "Leyden Jar," in one of the Londou daily papers, recommends galvanism to be sub. stituted as the punishment for wife beaters. He says : — " Although the garotters weut a little too far a short time ago, and forced a frightened Legislature to sauction their occasional flogging, it cannot be denied that this fact weighs heavily on the spirits of not a few among us. Every cut which a sturdy ruffian receives for half strati gli its or fracturing the scull of an old gentleman goes deeper into their tender hearts thau it does into the scoundrel's back. It cannot be helped. In a free country we must endure .milksops as well as greater evils. Flojxging has its drawbacks. It. is uot only painful, which is what we want, but it is ofteu disabling and society is hardly justified in crippling any of its members, unless it means to keep them permanently afterwards. Now, lastiug injury to the spine has, it is said, often followed a good flogging with the cat. Why, therefore use it when science provides us with a more than sufficient substistute? A galvanic battery is the substitute 1 propose. Electrify garotters wife beaters, brutally cruel cattle drovers, and the like. Give tbem shocks proportionate to their criminality. Regulate it, as you precisely can, according to their strength. Any electrician could construct a machine which would allow of gradations- of pain, from the well-known ' pins aad needles' up to a jarring which would resemble tbe breaking of bones. Aud the point to be borne in miud is that the infliction could be stopped instantly, and would leave little or no evil or disabling eflects afterwards. It would also admit of frequent application. I fancy a garotter who had been condemned to a month's electrifying every day would be unusually reluctant to have the experiment repeated. I need not point out also how much more suitable this system is to the 'advanced condition of humanity aud enlightenment' we have all attained, as compared to the old fashioned cat-o'-nine-tails." A Mormon elder was recently made very much of a parent. He- was presented with nine boys and five girls, the same morning.