5 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



drop. It is about the most rapid and least painful, though perhaps 

 the rarest form of death. In a case of syncope, I have seen the heart's 

 action cease in two minutes from the time the bolt was drawn. Fear 

 largely contributes to this mode of death. 



It now remains for us to consider death by dislocation or fracture 

 of the cervical vertebra?, with consequent laceration of the spinal cord. 

 It is frequently supposed that the injury arises from rupture of the 

 transverse ligament of the atlas and pressure on the cord by the odon- 

 toid process, but, if ever this does occur, it must be extremely rare. 

 Rupture of the transverse ligament could only take place when the 

 rope was adjusted very high in the neck, with the ring directly in 

 front or behind. And even then the odontoid process would be more 

 likely to break than the ligament. The destructive effect occurs at 

 the point on which the strain is brought to bear, and so the seat of 

 injury varies in different cases. I have seen it take place in the fol- 

 lowing situations : Complete separation between the second and third 

 cervical vertebras and fracture of the odontoid process at its junction 

 with the body of the axis ; oblique fracture through the body of the 

 axis, leaving the upper fragment with attached odontoid process in 

 situ, and fracture of the arch separating it from the body of the axis ; 

 complete separation between the second and third cervical vertebras 

 above the intervertebral disk, also slight separation and tearing of 

 ligaments between the atlas and the axis ; and complete dislocation 

 between the fifth and sixth cervical vertebras. In this latter case the 

 ring hitched on the chin, and the opposite part of the noose was low 

 in the neck, so that the long leverage action determined the low posi- 

 tion of the injury. In every case the vertebras were separated at the 

 point of injury for at least an inch, the spinal cord was severed, and 

 the vertebral arteries and all the ligaments were torn across. 



The shock to the nervous system produces an immediate loss of 

 consciousness, with complete paralysis of all the voluntary muscles. 

 It takes a body moving under the influence of gravity three quarters 

 of a second to fall through the space of nine feet ; and, owing to the 

 velocity acquired, according to the law of uniformly accelerated mo- 

 tion, the time occupied in the last seven inches during which the 

 stretching and tightening of the rope occurs is only '0225 of a sec- 

 ond. If to this we add, say, "0275 for the elasticity of the rope, then 

 the whole time during which the shock could be felt is only *05, or 

 one twentieth of a second. Even from this we must deduct the time 

 which it takes for the nervous impression to travel to the sensorium 

 and back, but, as the nerve-current travels at the rate of one hundred 

 feet per second, this is so slight that, like the atmospheric resistance 

 to the falling body, it may be left out of account. Although loss of 

 consciousness, and it is with this that humanitarians are chiefly con- 

 cerned, is instantaneous, yet death, as evidenced by the cessation of 

 the heart's action, does not take place so rapidly. It is possible in 



