| Show KILLING BY electricity wonderful power of electricity has been applied in modern times in almost every department of human activity it lias proved more than a verification of the fabulous stones of yore alie talea of giants attending favored mortals and ablo to outstrip the winds in their errands of service of gnomes and goblins whose voices were so shrill as to readily penetrate hundreds of miles of muscular imps v ho bore houses upon their backs and carried them with their inmates from to place these and more mystical stories too have found their foundation in tho recent developments and applications of the electric current today to day we talk by electricity write by electricity travel by electricity warm cheat our dwellings by its aid it drives our sewing machines sawa our wood grinds corn and pumps water and has latterly been applied as a heating medium for cooling apparatus so that the wag was by no means far wrong when he declared the yankees boil their coffee by lightning and fry beef beaks teaks by the aurora borealis Bo realia it has beebe for soine years a known fact that the passage of the electric current erected a marked and peculiar effect on the nerves and muscles of animals in reality this was the first discovery in the field of current or dynamic electricity tri city in a very gentle form the electric force acts as a stimulant and an ex citeno within he animal system causing spasmodic movements and increased vital action but in a stronger degree the application of electricity results in a partial or total paralysis of the muscles and a deadening of the nerves and if the current be sufficiently intense very sudden death is the consequence to all appearances death hy such means is instantaneous and painless and reasoning by analogy from known laws of vital action we cannot perceive how it could be otherwise since the velocity of the electric force is far greater than that of nervous energy within the body it is believed by those most competent to judge that a death by the lightning stroke or from the passage of an artificially excited current through the body is unattended by any consciousness as to the cause or operation of the shock this fact repeatedly stated by scientific experimenters peri menters and observers has at length been taken cognizance of by the legislative bodies of different states notably by those of new with a view to ascertaining the advisability of employing such methods by to execute the sentence of death upon condemned criminals in capital cases the agitation of the subject lias called forth from prominent press organs throughout the country many strong views regarding capital punishment its value as an element of to crime the proper way of carrying the dreadful sentence into effect the pro making the execution more or less public than at present and the practice of fixing the day of execution at the time of passing sentence or of leaving the matter to the discussion of the officers charged with alie warrant of death the legislative assembly of the state of yew york in the session of appointed a commission of prominent and experienced men to enquire into and report the most humane and practical method known to modern science of carrying into effect the sentence of death in capital cases the report was made a week ago it is prefaced by a review of the application of the death penalty at different periods of history the mosaic law recognized no lesa than thirty three of fences to which was at cached the punishment of death at one time the english law recognized one hundred afferent of fences declared to be punishable with death in modem times the horrible penalty ia applied only in cases of treason piracy murder certain military m some parts aggravated cases of rape and such of fences as involve great injury to the person or the community upon whom they may be committed the commissioners say almot alt primitive forms or capital punishment ish ment indeed the remark Is true of all early punishments are characterized by cruelty the commission continues toie lorta the protect society air even to obtain redress or compensation for wrone done are ant feebly shown the pun all express almuly an intense desire 1 wreak vengeance a deslys to pain and even the utmost agony possible upon the in the belief by so doieg acrie ty will instill terror into the hearts of vla docas who may be tempted to commit ot fence the modern idea of the brounds ad anses of the death penalty dealing humanely with the individual and irom to the single solemn fact features or the mode employed which merely intensify the suffering and heighten tho shame of the culprit have examined esre the which exist or ahe various curious modes punishment fulch are or have been ased among atles with the result of feeling the element of barbarous cruelty Is M prominent in each that no existing mode cain b reconsidered as era bodying suggestions of improvement of abat now in nse in the slate any change to deserve commendation must be to system substantially new and the careful reader punishments cannot without prejudice arrivo at a dille reut con elusion the use of electricity as the means of death is strongly urged this method being devoid of all the horrifying details attendant upon scenes of judicial executions by the harb arious rope the savage axe and its modern the terrible guillotine or the unsafe bullet numerous experiments of killing animals by electricity have been made and reported by scientific men and all with satisfactory result A time ago the city of buffalo N Y passed an or denance permitting alie killing of stray and ownerless doga by the was fitted with a metallic dog muzzle and then placed within a box lined with zinc and partly filled with one pole of wire was connected with the muzzle and the other with the ciuc aud on the pasi aage of the current death was the result alio animals were in several cases dissected by surgeons and most tha ordinary conditions absent and ahe heart once a dead iud masa of flesh the apparatus for execution of criminals by this method would be simple and effectual A wire could bo run from the electric light works now to be found in almost all cities of any importance it in proposed that a death chain be provided with and foot resta and in which the culprit could be seated in a half reclining position one wire then be connected with the head rest and tho other with tho foot plate it is proposed to enact a law as follows of death must in case be very by causing 10 pa through the body odthe convict a sufficient to canuso death and the application of such current thai I 1 be buch convict ls dead it is suggested further that alie criminal shall not be informed of the exact time of his death it being thought eliat uncertainty in particular pati cular will bo greatly dreaded and the unknown death will become so terrible in anticipation as to debar would be malefactors from capital crime and unless tins end bo readied the purpose and object of the death penalty rabat be declared there are many bravadoes brava does jia tures have become callous and to the thought of death but v aiu would be affrighted by the uncertainty attending a private execution it is proposed also that nen be from publishing full descriptions of abo details attending an execution A simple statement would be permitted to the effect that the sentence of the court had been properly carried into effect |
