ANIMAL MECHANICS. 



9 



extremely clumsy, and also painful to the criminal. Instead 

 of the "short drop" generally used, we ought to employ the 

 "long drop," which causes instantaneous death. It has been 

 proved by me that the shock of a ton dropped through one foot 

 is just sufficient to fracture the anterior articulating Surfaces 

 of the second vertebra at their contact with the atlas, and that 

 this fracture allows the shock to fall upon the medulla oblongata, 

 so as to produce instantaneous death. As the result of some 

 consideration bestowed upon the subject, I would recommend 

 the adoption of the following rule : — 



Rule I. "Divide the weight of the patient in pounds into 

 2240, and the quotient will give the length of the long drop in 

 feet." 



For example, a criminal weighing 160 lbs. should be al- 

 lowed 14 feet drop. If local circumstances will not allow of 

 the long drop being employed, the requisite shock should be 

 produced by strapping a shot to the feet, so as to secure the 

 shock of 2240 ft. lbs. to the medulla. 



Efforts have been made in the United States to give to * 

 hanging all the rapidity of death by the guillotine, without the 

 painful spectacle of bloodshed. This method, which is bor- 

 rowed from the mode of execution practised on board ship, 

 consists in suddenly lifting the criminal into the air by means of 

 a great weight attached to the other end of the rope fastened 

 round his neck ; the rope passes over two pulleys, one of which 

 is placed vertically over the patient, and at a given signal the 

 weight falls through a regulated height, lifting him suddenly 

 into the air. Sufficient attention, however, has not been paid, 

 even in that enlightened country, to the conditions necessary 

 to be fulfilled in this mode of suspension ; for in many of their 

 executions the only care that seems to have been taken was to 

 make the falling weight heavier than the criminal, so as to in- 

 sure his permanent suspension by the neck until death termi- 

 nated his sufferings. 



