NEW APPLICATION OF GALVANISM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 208, 25 October 1880, Page 4

NEW APPLICATION OF GALVANISM.

A correspondent signing himself "Leycfen Jar/ writes to ihe Pall Mall Gazette on the subject of punishing ruffiaua. He says : — " Flogginp, it may be admitted baa its drawbacks. It is not only painful, which is what wo want, but it is also often disabling, nnd aociety is hardly justified iv crippling nuy of its members, unless it means to keep them permanently aftervyerdp. Now, lasting injury to the sipine has, it is Baid, often followed a good flogging with the cat. Why, therefore, uee it, when science providec us with a more than efficient subatiiuk? A galvanic battery is the substitute I would propose. Electrify garoiers, wife-bearere, brutally cruel oaltle-drivers aud the like. Give them Bhocke proportionate to their criminality, R-^ulatd it, as you can precisely, according to their strength. Any electrician could construct; v machine which would allow a of gradation of pt*io, from the *ell-knowu 'pius and needles' up to o jirrin^ which would resemble the breakiog of bones. And the point to ba borne in mind v that the infliction could be stopped instantly, and would leave little or no evil or disabling effecfß afterwards. It would also admit of frequent application. I fancy a gargarroter who had been condemned to a month's electri'yiog every day would be unusually reluc'ant to lave the experiment repeated. I need not point out q'S3 bow much more suitable this SBytem is to the 'advanced condition of humanity aud enlightenment' we have all attained, as compared to the old fashioned cat-o'-niue-tails. '