RT Journal
T1 PAinless capital punishment.
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1899
FD September 16
VO XXXIII
IS 12
SP 737
OP 737
DO 10.1001/jama.1899.02450640051010
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1899.02450640051010
AB A new proposal has been offered to lessen the sufferings of the unfortunate murderer who has to undergo the pangs of capital punishment. Instead of hanging, which has already been held as barbarous and has been abolished in New York, or electrocution, which it is claimed is not the same in its action on all persons and therefore may even sometimes cause pain, it is now proposed, in a paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to carry out capital punishment by poisoning with hydrocyanic acid and under conditions that will make it entirely painless and unexpected. The convicted criminal is to be taken to the death-chamber, which is to be connected by pipes with retorts generating the vapor, and some night when he is peaceably sleeping, it is to be suddenly turned on and he will peacefully pass out of this mortal existence. The date