THE QUESTION OF PAIN IN HANGING. 349 



It will readily be seen, from previous considerations, that large 

 masses of the resulting nebula will be thrown out from the sphere of 

 sensible attraction of the remaining mass, with velocities exceeding 

 300 miles a second, while other portions will emerge with less and less 

 velocities, till finally some portions barely reach those limits. 



The remaining nebula should then begin to contract, and might, 

 possibly, form a small planetary system. Of the out-thrown masses, 

 those which moved with the greatest velocity would retire to the 

 greatest distances ; but even they must finally stop, because they could 

 not overcome perpetual resistance. 



The resistance which these masses have to contend with is of two 

 kinds : first, the feeble, insensible attraction of the remaining mass ; 

 second, the resistance of the ether. 



The first diminishes with the square of the increasing distance, but 

 is never reduced to absolute zero ; the second, however, diminishes 

 with the diminishing speed, and finally becomes nothing, at which time 

 the body stops. 



Now, would these farthest masses return? Most certainly they 

 would ; for no distance can be named so great that the force of grav- 

 ity shall become absolutely nothing. 



If it took millions of years for the most distant body to move one 

 inch, after it had stopped it would eventually return to the central 

 mass, which would itself finally become quiescent. 



It will be readily seen that if any number of such bodies were put 

 in motion in the boundless ether, they, too, would finally come to rest. 



Another very well-known and much shorter path leads to this 

 same conclusion ; it is this : 



If the ponderable moving matter of the universe be limited, then, 

 by constant collision, its motion would all be converted into heat and 

 light, and be radiated into the outer realms of space, never to return 

 again, leaving all the ponderable matter to collect into one great mass, 

 and to cool off to a state of perfect quiescence. 



But, if matter be infinite, then there can be no " outer realms " 

 into which this heat-force can radiate ; consequently there will be no 

 motion lost, and matter, since it has ever been moving, will continue in 

 motion forever. 



THE QUESTION OF PAIN IN HANGING. 



By EOGER S. TEACY, M. D. 



IN executions it is the custom to drop the condemned man from a 

 height, or (as in New York) to jerk him up from the ground by the 

 fall of a heavy weight, so that there is a powerful concussion of the 

 brain to start with. It used to be a common belief that the necks of 



