Does Electrocution Kill?

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8959, 7 December 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

Does Electrocution Kill?

The question of the propriety of putting criminals to death l>y electric; shock, which was discussed with acrimony and even violence at the time when the method was first introduced in the State of Xew York, lias been revived in the medical journals !»\- the report of certain exjieriments on rabbits made by Dr J.ouis Rohmovitch, who draws from them conclusions ad versa to the method of electrocution as at present practiced. Ihcsc experiments, which wore first described in "The Journal of Mental Pathology." arc discussed editorial, ly in "The Medical Record" (Xew "iork, September 30), "which notes that although "the chair' 1 lias for nearly two decades been the legal mode of execution in Xew York it has by no means received the unanimous approval of those who belie\e in capital punishment. The writer goes on

The statement that death by means of an electric current- of high voltage is practically instantaneous and. painless has not been accepted by ail who nave studied the subject or witnessed an electrocution. If muscular contraction and cardiac pulsation are accepted signs of continued life, it is very certain that death is* not instantaneous in all cases! and, indeed, in certain instances there has been a strong suspicion that the Teal executioner was the physician who performed the autopsy after life was assumed to bo extinct. Whether the method is painless or noL depends upon whether consciousness is at once abolished ; and that, is a point which is naturally difficult to determine in the- electric chair.' The writer then refers to the experiments of Dr Kobinovitch, in -which Tabbits were subjected to currents of low voltage, death taking place with a tension of fourteen volts. He says : -It -was found that consciousness was completely abolished when only about five volts "were turned on, this current inducing a condition having every appearance of a deep sleep. About two an<l one-half times tiic; voltage producing 'electric sleep' was necessary to causo death. There was neither edema, blistering, nor burning of the parl6 to ivhich the electrodes had been applied. "I'ending the abolition of electrocution and of capital punishment in general, of which. Dr Robinovitch is a pronounced opponent, he urges that- the process be made as humane as possible by the 'use of these electric currents of low voltage. By means of them suspension of consciousness is quickly and absolutely secured, and cadi a c and respiratory paralysis is rendered certain ; at the same time the horrible burning of the parts in contact with the electrodes is avoided. This la6t, of course, is a purely esthetic argument, but for the sake of the elecfcrocutioner (it would be worth while abolishing the method to get rid of this word) and of the witnesses the process should be made as little brutalising as possible. But, perhaps the strongest argument in favor of the employment of a current of low voltage, assuming that there was no flaw in these experiments and that the same certainty of results would obtain in the human body as in the rabbit, is that it surely kills, and the dreadful suspicion tliat possibly the physician is in the end the real executioner would then be stilled. Resuscitation was attempted in Dr Robinovitch's experiments, and always failed when Tadial pulsations or beart-fceats and muscular movements were not- visible or preceptible —but not when these were present-. In some of the cases of electrocution in. Xew York there were chest movements and radial pulsations after the final contact was broken, though, the writer states that, this rapidly ceased. So far as we know, no attempts at resuscitation were made in

these cases, 60 the doubt remains whether life was realiv extinct. ..."

**The present method of inflicting capital punisnmenfc in Xew York State cannotbe regarded as ideal- Perhaps the substitution of currents of low voltage, as used in the experiments to "which we have referred. might make the conditions of executions more tolerable. The subject, is at least worthy of further study and experimentation, "with a view to _ the confirmation or rejection of Dr Robinovitch's conclusions."