Re: Nitrogen KILLS
From: donald j haarmann (donald-haarmann_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 10/14/04
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Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:08:50 GMT
"Steve Harris sbharris@ROMAN9.netcom.com"
>
> COMMENT
>
> At one time Utah offered shooting, hanging, or beheading. But nobody
> ever chose beheading.
>
> SBH
-------------
Pity.
-------------
Geoffery Abbott - Yoemahn Warder (retd.)
HM Tower of London
Member of Her Majesty's Bodyguard
Of the Yoeman of the Guard Extraordinary
The Book of Execution: An Encyclopedia of Methods of Judicial Execution
Headline Book - London 1994
This entry should not be concluded without reference to the belief held by some who posed the hypothesis
that life could still continue after the guillotine had severed a victim's head; albeit perhaps for only a few
seconds. In the last century, when medical science was rapidly progressing, among those pursuing unusual
lines of investigation were several professors and doctors who argued that, unlike the axe, which stunned its
victim by the very shock of its initial impact, rendering him unconscious, the razor-sharp guillotine blade
sliced through flesh, nerves and tendons so rapidly that perhaps the life force continued to flow through the
brain for an unknown length of time. Perhaps a victim actually saw the basket coming up to meet him; was
aware of the triumphant shouts of the crowd maybe even heard the gushing sound of his own blood
pumping from his gaping neck and splashing on to the boards of the scaffold.
And because the severed vocal chords prevented him from speaking, perhaps if one were to conduct
experiments at the very moment of decapitation, maybe the victim could indicate in some other manner that
his brain still functioned.
This theory was investigated by, among others, a Dr Amirault who, in 1907, circulated blood from a living
dog into the head of a dead criminal, Menesclou, later reporting that 'the lips filled out, the eyelids twitched,
and after two hours the dog's heart had reactivated a living brain, and speech was a distinct possibility, for
the lips contracted as if about to speak'. One wonders what it would have said, had it been able.
Another medical man, Marcoux, experimented on murderer Magret, whose head had opportunely fallen
upright in the basket. Studying it, the worthy doctor described how he saw the muscles controlling the eyes
and lips twitching spasmodically, the eyelids half-closed. He placed his lips close to the right ear and called
Magret's name in a clear but not too loud voice, whereupon the eyes immediately opened and 'he looked at
me, focusing for ten to fifteen seconds - not a glassy stare but one of deliberate attention. Then the eyelids
closed, but when his name was called again, the eyes opened once more, following me as I moved around
the basket. And then the eyes closed again, never to reopen.
In a similar experiment doctors stopped the flow of blood immediately after decapitation, using styptics,
while other doctors accurately repositioned the head back on the torso. Wasting no time, the join was
expertly and tightly bandaged, and smelling-salts were held under the nose. It was reported that an
expression passed across the face, and the eyelids twitched; the two parts of the victim were carefully
carried to a nearby house, but no further indications were evident and it became obvious that all life had
departed. No conclusions were ever reached as to whether the movements were deliberate or merely reflex
contractions of the muscles after death.
A more technical and detailed explanation, though not one which necessarily solves the mystery, is
provided by Dr Harold Hillman of the University of Surrey:
'Death occurs due to the separation of the brain and spinal cord, after transection of the surrounding
tissues, and must cause acute and probably severe pain. It may be presumed that the subject becomes
unconscious within a few seconds, but not immediately after, the spinal cord is severed.
The eyes of small rodents move for a few seconds after biochemists have guillotined them. Anaesthetised
sheep lose the flash-evoked responses of their electrocorticographs about fourteen seconds after both
carotid arteries are severed, and seventy seconds after one carotid artery and one jugular vein are cut (vide
Gregory and Wotton, 1984). Dogs become unconscious twelve seconds after the blood supply to their
brains is occluded (Roberts, 1954). It has been calculated that the human brain has enough oxygen stored
for metabolism to persist about seven seconds after the supply is cut off (McIlwain and Bachelard, 1985).
However, the brain could well derive some of its energy from substrate in the scalp and facial and neck
muscles (Geiger and Magnes, 1947). It may be presumed that a beheaded person dies from anoxia
consequent upon haemorrhage.
The calculation that about seven seconds supply of oxygen remains in the brain after being guillotined
could well mean that the severed head could still see and hear after failing into the waiting basket; pending
volunteers, however, the question seems unlikely ever to be resolved.
-- donald j haarmann --------------------------------- On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory sat down to rest, and resting, died.
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