1908.] 



OF THE DEATH PENALTY BY ELECTRICITY. 43 



The closure of the glottis confines whatever air may be in the lungs ; 

 upon interrupting the current the body becomes entirely limp, the 

 glottis partly relaxes, the thorax collapses and the contained air 

 rushes through the partly closed glottis. A sound resembling a sigh 

 or half groan may be thus produced upon the body of any dead 

 animal ; a little mucus present augments the sound into a gurgle. 

 It is no wonder that inexperienced persons then believe life to be 

 still present. 



The death is undoubtedly painless and instantaneous. The vital 

 mechanisms of life, circulation and respiration, cease with the first 

 contact. Consciousness is blotted out instantly and the prolonged 

 application of the current as it is usually practised by ]\Ir. E. F. 

 Davis, the state electrician of New York, ensures the permanent 

 derangement of the vital functions so that there could be no recovery 

 of these. Occasionally, the drying of the sponges through undue 

 generation of heat causes desquamation or superficial blistering of 

 the skin at the site of the electrodes, but not often. Post-mortem 

 discoloration, or lividity, often appears during the first contact. 

 The pupils of the eyes dilate instantly and remain dilated in death. 



The post-mortem examination of " electrocuted " criminals re- 

 veals a number of interesting phenomena. 



The temperature of the body rises promptly and reaches as high 

 as 120° F. to 129^° F. within twenty minutes in many cases. After 

 the removal of the brain the temperature recorded in the vertebral 

 canal was often over 120° F. The development of this high tem- 

 perature is to be regarded as resulting from the active metabolism 

 of tissues not (somatically) dead within a body where all vital 

 mechanisms have been abolished, there being no circulation to carry 

 off the generated heat. The maximum heat is generated at the site 

 of the leg-electrodes, where muscle (myosin) coagulation is most 

 extensive. Furthermore, the release of from ten to twenty horse- 

 power of energy within the body must contribute materially to the 

 caloric increase. 



The heart, at first flaccid when exposed after death, soon con- 

 tracts and assumes a tetanized condition. This is particularly 

 marked in the left ventricle ; on the whole the organ assumes the 

 form of a heart in systole. In one case (Koenig) the right ven- 



