190 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [August, 



j3rove to be so — as in the second dog operated on the heart ceased beat- 

 ing instantly, but attempts at respiration were made." 



This is why I disagree with Dr. Shrady as to possibility of resuscita- 

 tion of Kemmler at this time. (See also testimony, 3777, Kemmler 

 enquiry.) There is plenty of evidence to show that respiration follow- 

 ing heart arrest has been kept up in individuals subjected to powerful 

 electric stroke for some time, whei-e resuscitation was impossible and 

 the heart had ceased to beat. However, the current was reapplied 

 within 70 seconds. As might be expected, when its influence reached 

 the muscular coats of stomach, a contraction took place, causing a small 

 amount of mucus to ooze forth from the mouth (not fly all over the 

 room, as one paper puts it). This is a good indication of death also. 

 One hundred seconds had now c\c\\)?,e(\. at fa7'ihc'st since the application 

 of the first current. But Kemmler was dead at the first application of 

 current, and with not one iota of feeling, as I stated at the time. 



This first electro-execution has demonstrated the positive truthfulness 

 of all that has been claimed by its advocates. Under a voltage much 

 below that recommended, the culprit has been instantly- ushered into 

 eternity. 



Warden Durston suggested to me, in Buftalo, some weeks before 

 Kemmler's execution, that the electric-execution plant should be in a 

 separate building. A powerful dynamo-engine in one division, death 

 switch in another; lamp-board, volt-meter, especially adapted, with 

 chair, in third room. With this arrangement the Warden and witnesses 

 would never have to record even an attempt at re.spiration ; as at the 

 time of making the circuit the exact voltage, which should be high 

 enough to do its work thoroughly without question, could easily be seen 

 recorded on the meters on the wall. 



Tlie Prepanitioii of Yegetable Tissues for Sectioning on the 

 Microtome.* 



By a. J. McCLATCHIE, 



LINCOLN, NEB 



Vegetable tissues vary so much as to the amount of protoplasm, cel- 

 lulose, and other substances contained, that the methods used for obtain- 

 ing good sections from them must vary greatly. Lhave prepared and 

 sectioned fungi, lichens, the cotyledons, plumules, hypocotyledonary 

 stems, roots, and root-tips of the cucumber, young pine cones, young 

 wheat blades, lilac buds, and bean stems, with varying degrees of suc- 

 cess. 



Lichens and the young, firm cotyledons of the cucumber could be 

 dehydrated, and permeated with parafline much more rapidly than 

 young meristemic tissue, or tissue composed largely of cellulose and 

 water. The former may be placed in 50 per cent., 75 per cent,, 90 per 

 cent., and 100 per cent, alcohol, chloroform, chloroform and parMulne, 

 and finally in paraffine at a temperature of 55° C, remaining in c;ich 

 from two to twelve hours, and good results will be obtained. But the 

 meristemic and the thin-walled watery tissue must be treated difterently 



* From the American Naturalist, July, 1890. 



