DEAD, YET LIVING.
A remarkable case of a man who lived for one and a-half hours after being guillotined was quoted by Dr. B. H. Spilsbury, the well known pathologist, in an address before Cambridge University Medical Society, as reported in the “Lancet.” A completely severed artery, Dr. Spilsbury pointed out, is a less immediate danger to life than one partly cut. A case was vouched for by two French medical authorities in which a criminal lived for one and a-half hours after he had been guillotined. Although his head had been completely removed, the heart received sufficient blood and continued to beat. He did not die immediately from loss of blood because of the retraction and contraction of the muscles and arteries in the neck.
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Bibliographic details
Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLIII, Issue 9786, 31 January 1923, Page 7
Word Count
126DEAD, YET LIVING. Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLIII, Issue 9786, 31 January 1923, Page 7
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