178 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [August, 



made. The interference with all functions was electrically instantan- 

 eous ; death ensued from electric shock ; the qrdinary conditions of 

 dying were absent ; nothing could be more sudden. 



In an other experiment with a dog the heart was beating rhythmically ; 

 on making the circuit it instantly ceased to beat. The current was quickly 

 turned off and forced respiration kept up with the view of bringing 

 the heart again into action ; this was entirely unsuccessful. The re- 

 sult demonstrates that if the current used is sufficiently powerful, at- 

 tempts at resuscitation in the case of a criminal executed by electricity 

 would certainly fail. In this second experiment it was also noticed 

 that an attempt to respire was made by the animal after the current 

 was turned on. This undoubtedly indicated that the respiratory centre 

 in the brain (medulla) had not completely lost its susceptibility to im- 

 pressions, and that, through the want of oxygen in the blood and centre 

 noted, the effort to breathe was formulated. This has an important 

 bearing upon the apparatus to be used in executions, inasmuch as it 

 indicates that the poles should be arranged to pass the current through 

 the centres of function in the brain. Upon physiological grounds, 

 also, this is indicated. Even without this refinement of precision in 

 the apparatus, as has been shown in this last experiment where the 

 current was not passed directly through the functional brain centres, 

 the sudden stoppage of the heart would indicate that electricity offers 

 the most rapid agent in producing death that we have at our command. 

 From these observations the following deductions may be drawn : 



First, that death produced by a sufficiently powerful electric current 

 is the most rapid and humane produced by any agent at our command. 



Second, that resuscitation after the passage of such a current through 

 the body and functional centres of the brain is impossible. 



Third, that the apparatus to be used should be arranged to permit 

 the current to pass through the centres of function and intelligence in 

 the brain. 



When this report was prepared it was understood that it was to go 

 before the legislature of the State of New York. It was the only 

 record of actual demonstration in the report of the commission bearing 

 upon the subject in question. That it was influential in the passage of 

 the electro-execution bill goes without the saying. The report has 

 been criticised as not covering electrical measurements. I was limited 

 in apparatus, and accomplished as much as was possible with the means 

 at my command. 



To the physiologist accustomed to demonstrate the action of the heart 

 and lungs in life, it is noticeable that the heart does not spontaneously 

 cease its rhythmical movements. It dies slowly, the movement becom- 

 ing more and more labored until it ceases. To all who witnessed the 

 experiments just reported, the sudden stoppage of the heart appeared to 

 indicate a special influence of the current on that viscus. Subsequent 

 experiments by many experimenters have proven the correctness of these 

 conclusions. 



The next series of experiments took place under the direction of 

 Harold P. Brown, Esq., at the Columbia College School of Mines, 

 New York City. A large dog was given 300 volts pressure, and then 

 1,000 volts of continuous current, without injury, but 300 volts of alter- 

 nating current caused instant death. August 3, iSSS, at the same in- 



