July 25, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



67 



considerations in favour of further exploration. " Within 

 the periphery of the Antarctic circle," says Captain Maury, 

 " is included an area equal in extent to one-sixth part of 

 the entire land surface of our planet. Most of this immense 

 area is as unknown to the inhabitants of the earth as the 

 interior of one of Jupiter's satellites. With the appliances 

 of steam to aid us, with the lights of science to guide us, 

 it -would be a reproach to the world to permit such a 

 large portion of its surface any longer to remain unex- 

 plored. For the last 200 years, the Arctic Ocean has 

 been a theatre for exjiloration ; but as for the Antarctic, 

 no e.xpedition has attempted to make any persistent 

 exploration, or even to winter there. England, through 

 Cook and Ross ; Russia, through Billingshausen ; France, 

 through D'Urville ; and the United States, through Wilkes, 

 have sent expeditions to the South Sea, They sighted and 

 sailed along the icy barrier, but none of them spent the 

 winter, or essayed to travel across and look beyond the 

 first impediment. The expeditions which have been sent 

 to explore unknown seas have contributed largely to the 

 stock of human knowledge, and they have added renown to 

 nations, lustre to diadems. Navies are not all for war. 

 Peace has its conquests, science its glories ; and no navy 

 can boast of brighter honours than those which have been 

 gathered in the fields of geographical exploration or physical 

 research." 



It does not appear that Antarctic voyages would be 

 attended with any excessive degree of danger. Ko ship 

 has hitherto been lost, I believe, in explorations beyond 

 the Antarctic circle. It may be said, indeed, that such 

 attempts are rather arduous than dangerous. It may even 

 be found that the Antarctic barriers are impenetrable, but 

 this has certainly not as yet been demonstrated. And it is 

 far from being improbable that, if success could be achieved, 

 an important field of commercial enterprise would be 

 opened. The Antarctic regions are not mere desert wastes. 

 The seamen under Ross found Possession Island covered by 

 penguins standing in ranks like soldiers, and too little 

 familiar with the ways of man to attempt escape. More 

 valuable animals live and thrive, however, in Antarctic 

 seas. Whales and seals exist there in abundance, and, as 

 Captain Maury has well remarked, " of all the industrial 

 pursuits of the sea, the whale fishery is the most valuable." 

 In Arctic fisheries, he tells us, three thousand American 

 vessels are engaged, and " if to these we add the Dutch, 

 French, and English, we shall have a grand total of 

 perhaps not less than six or eight thousand, of all sizes and 

 flags, engaged in this one pursuit." There are reisons for 

 believing that whale-fisheries in Antarctic regions would 

 afford a richer, as they would certainly aflbrd a far wider, 

 field for maritime enterprise. 



SENSATION IN A SEVERED HEAD. 



DURING the murderous horrors of the great Revolution 

 stories were current of heads retaining consciousness 

 and sensibility after the guillotine had separated them 

 from the bodies of the victims, and it has been a question 

 of interest to physiologists and philanthropists how soon 

 absolute death supervenes upon decapitation. A curious 

 case is mentioned in our issue for June 27, but later 

 observations and experiments have been published. 



On the 30th April la^t, a criminal, whose real name was 

 not revealed, but who went under that of Campi, was 

 executed in Paris, and arrangements were made by M. 

 Laborde to experiment with his remains. A curious 

 custom prevented the doctor from receiving his sub- 

 ject until a funeral service had been performed at a 



cemeterj', and thus an hour and twenty minutes elapsed 

 between the fall of the knife and the beginning of the 

 experiments, of whicli a full account will be found in 

 the Revue Scientijlqiie for the 21st of June. While 

 assistants were connecting the carotid artery of a 

 dog with the severed artery of the head in order 

 to supply it with the stimulus of freshly-circulating blood, 

 JI. Laborde endeavoured to excite the spinal marrow by 

 electric shocks, but without effect, whether he operated 

 upon the portion connected with the trunk, or upon that 

 of the head. The muscular system res^ponded to the electric 

 excitation, but the nervous system was impassive — it had 

 become totally and irrecoverably insensible an hour and a 

 half after the decapitation. M. Laborde's conclusion was 

 that " the nervous tissue in general is the first to lose its 

 power when the circulation is stopped, and that the head 

 is the first part of it to be dispossessed of its functions.' 

 " In order," he said, " to restore to tliis organ perception 

 and consciousness, it would be necessary not only to replace 

 experimentally its conditions of circulation, but to do so as 

 quickly as possible, before there was time for a definite and 

 irremediable loss of functional power." 



But, however interesting to science, both humanity and 

 morality would be shocked if any wretched victim of the 

 law were recalled to even momentary life and suffering. 



The failure of the experiments with Campi led to an 

 abominable trial with a dog, subjected to decapitation and 

 transfii&iou of blood, when the animal is reported to have 

 recognised a familiar voice by a smiling motion of its 

 mouth. More lately, M. Petitgand has contributed to 

 these inquiries observations he made in 1875, when wit- 

 nessing the execution of an Annamite at Saigon. Ac- 

 cording to his account in the Revue Scientifique for July -5, 

 the execution took place on the sandy Plain of the Tombs, 

 the cemetery for the Annamites and Chinese. Four pirates, 

 captured in arms, were the sufferers. Their chief was a strong 

 man in the prime of life, and meeting his fate with calm 

 courage, the doctor determined to keep his eyes fixed upon 

 him. According to the local mode of execution, the pri- 

 soner has his hands tied behind him and fastened to a post. 

 He has then to kneel down and bend his head, so as to 

 stretch the intervertebral substance as much as possible, and 

 if the victim shrinks, an assistant holds him in the right 

 position by his long hair. In this case no such aid was 

 required. The executioner marked the spot he wished to 

 strike with betel juice, and then, with the sweep of a long, 

 broad, and thin sabre, effected his business at one stroke. 

 M. Petitgand remarks that, when decapitation is skilfully 

 performed in this manner, there is no contusion of the 

 spinal marrow, which occurs with the guillotine, unless it 

 happens to cut neatly through an intervertebral disk. 

 When the head is roughly severed, as in Campi's case, he 

 supposes the shock so stupefies the nervous centres as to 

 render any subsequent manifestation of function of the 

 brain quite impossible. 



In the Aunam case he did not for an instant lose sight 

 of the condemned man, but addressed some words concern- 

 ing him to the oiiicer superintending the execution, in a 

 loud voice. He noticed, also, that the patient examined 

 him with the most lively attention. When the prepara- 

 tions were finished, the doctor retired a couple of metres, 

 and the victim, before bowing his head, exchanged glances 

 with him. The head fell less than two metres from him, 

 and did not roll as usual, but stood upright on the sand, 

 which reduced the h.-emorrhage to a minimum. " At this 

 moment," exclaims the doctor, " I was alarmed to see the 

 eyes of the victim fixed upon mine. Hesitating to believe 

 this a manifestation of consciousness, I moved quickly in a 

 quarter-circle round the head, and I can affirm that the 



