Tempted to Have His Head Cut Off

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 648, 27 April 1929, Page 22

Tempted to Have His Head Cut Off

BJPjgl EORGE BERNARD SHAW has acknowiftH) 1 lodged that he is greatly Inu tempted to have his head cut off. A German friend recently asked the opinion of the Irish dramatist and wit of the recently announced invention of the Russian Professor Brjucheneuko, who kept a severed head of a dog alive for more than three hours by means of a pumping arrangement. Shaw replied: “I find the Brjuehenenko experiment,frightfully interesting, but cannot imagine anything sillier than the suggestion to try it on a criminal sentenced to death. To prolong the life of such a person is undesirable. "The experiment should be tried on a scientist whose life is endangered by an incurable organic disease, say cancer of the stomach, whereby humanity is threatened with the loss of services of his brain. What is easier than to save such genius from the death bed by cutting off the head thereby freeing the brain from discase. “T am greatly tempted to have mv head cut off so that I may continue to dictate plays and books independently of any illness, without having to dress and undress, or eat, or do anything at all except to produce masterpieces of dramatic art and literature. I would, of course, expect one of two vivisectionists to submit ! bemselves to the experiment to prove to my satisfaction that it is practicable and not dangerous, but i assume that [ would not mean any serious difficulty ”