a Mechanical and Physiological point of view, 29 



"It is clear," says Blackstone, "that if upon judgment to be 

 hanged by the neck till he is dead the criminal be not thoroughly 

 killed, but revives, the sheriff must hang him again." But, 

 strangely enough, we find in the ' Vision of Piers Plowman/ a 

 passage which seems to show that the opposite of this either was, 

 or was believed to be, the established rule in his time : — 



" It is noght used on Earthe 

 To hangen a felon 

 Ofter than ones, 

 Though he were a tretour." 



From some cause or other, not easy to explain, it has been the 

 custom to use a longer drop in Ireland than in England or Scot- 

 land; and there can be no doubt that it is a more humane mode 

 of execution than the English, and also more instructive as a 

 solemn warning to the spectators, whose feelings are not likely to 

 be enlisted on the side of the criminal by witnessing his convulsive 

 struggles, which are an unnecessary accompaniment of death by 

 hanging if properly conducted. On a recent occasion in the 

 north of England, the criminal had undergone tracheotomy some 

 years previous to his execution ; and such was the ignorance of 

 those who conducted the hanging, that he was dropped through 

 a short height quite insufficient to injure the spinal cord, and 

 breathed with ease through the aperture in the trachea, suffering 

 horrible tortures, until relieved by the humanity of the surgeon 

 of the jail, who closed with his fiuger the aperture through which 

 he breathed, and so completed the clumsy work of the hangman. 



In using the long drop, also, mistakes may occur, either through 

 the weakness of the rope, or through miscalculation of the length 

 of the drop. Both these errors were exemplified at Castlebar in 

 Ireland in 1786, at the execution of the notorious George Robert 

 Fitzgerald, who, when he jumped off the ladder, broke the rope; 

 and when he was hanged the second time the rope was too long 

 and his toes touched the ground, until at length a humane by- 

 stander raised him up while the hangman shortened the cord. 



Death is produced by hanging in one or other of the three 

 following ways : — 



1. By apoplexy, caused by pressure on the jugular veins; 



2. By asphyxia, caused by stoppage of the windpipe ; 



3. By shock of the medulla oblongata, caused by fracture of 

 the vertebral column. 



In the first two cases death is preceded by convulsions, lasting 

 from five to forty-five minutes, which are caused by the cessation 

 of the supply of arterial blood to the muscles. In the third case 

 death is instantaneous and painless, and is unaccompanied by 

 any convulsive movement whatever. 



