igoS.] OF THE DEATH PENALTY BY ELECTRICITY. 47 



At the time when objections to the hangman's bungling were 

 most strongly urged in favor of some better method, poisoning by 

 prussic acid as well as chloroform were suggested. With regard 

 to the injection of prussic acid by means of the hypodermic syringe, 

 the Gerry Commission report says : 



"This is open to the very serious objection that the use of that in- 

 strument is so associated with the practice of medicine, and as a legitimate 

 means of alleviating human suffering, that it is hardly advisable to urge its 

 application for the purposes of legal executions against the almost unanimous 

 protest of the medical profession." 



It seems to me that the use of chloroform, first suggested by 

 Wilder in 1870, cheap and efficient as it would be, is open to the 

 same objection. There should be a lively sense of violence, of mys- 

 teriously overwhelming power, of potent force and destructive 

 energy attached to the means employed in putting the murderous 

 ruffian out of existence. If any sentimentality is to obtain in rela- 

 tion with capital punishment methods it should not be in favor of 

 the "plug ugly" wielders of the stiletto, black-jack and the ever- 

 ready revolver. 



Capital punishment has been abolished in Rhode Island, Maine, 

 Michigan and Wisconsin. Kansas had abolished it but restored it 

 after a negro was burned at the stake for an outrage upon a woman. 

 The states of New York, Colorado and Iowa deemed it wise to 

 reenact the death penalty after it had once been abolished, owing to 

 the increase of crime. (The same experience was met with in 

 Switzerland where the penalty was abolished in 1874 and again 

 established in several cantons in 1879.) 



In Louisiana the death penalty is inflicted for assault with intent 

 to kill, arson, burglary and administering poison. 



In Delaware and North Carolina arson and burglary are capital 

 crimes. 



In Missouri seven crimes are punishable by death ; among them 

 are murder, train robbery, arson, perjury in a capital case and 

 mayhem. 



In Connecticut the law prescribes the death penalty for placing 

 obstructions on a railroad track. 



In Utah the law provides that the condemned may choose between 

 hanging and shooting. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. XLVII. l88 D, PRINTED JULY ID, I908. 



