TORTUTE BY ELECTRICITY.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 1 July 1881, Page 2

TORTUTE BY ELECTRICITY.

» AGONY UNDERGONE BY THE CZAR'S MURDERERS. According to a desptjjch from Geneva, Rnssakoff and Jaliboff, the killers of the Czar, have been mer« cilessly put to torture in the presence of General Loris Melikoff. Russakoff was electrized by powerful batteries, and forced by the intolerable agony he suffered to answer the questions put to him. Park Benjamin, the scientific expert, said recently, * The idea of turturing crimiDals by electricity is not original with the Russians. It is a British invention, and was first suggested about five years ago by an English merbanical journal in commenting upon the execution of criminals by electric shock instead of by hacging. The English writers wanted to do away with the cat o' nine tails, which is administered in England to garroters and other criminals of certain classes, and use the electric batten^ as he somehow grimly expressed it, ab* as< to produce absolutely indescribable tor* ture (unaccompained by wounds of* even bruises>)i thrilling through every fibre of such miscreants. There. was an American inventor who had a design for in flicting this species of irons on the arms and thighs of the criminal,

and placed in them wet sponges. When connected with a current of electricity the shock would by this system pass through the legs anl shoulder and avoid the vital parts of the body. The torture inflicted by electricity is of two kinds—by contraction of the mus* cles at rapidly recurring intervals and by burning with sparks. The tortures of old days when not done by fits or compression, were the straining end tearing asunder of muscles. Of this kind were the scavenger's daughter, and the cages of Louis XIV., in which a man could not stand up or lie down. Tue electric shock exactly reverses those condition?. It produces an enormous rapid contraction in the body of the muscles at very short intervals. The degree of pain produced is about the same. The force of the electricity h'M to be nicely graded ; a too powerful shock would numb or kill a mm. .-Tlie otbeV-msthnd Js by consenting a number of intermittent sparks on the Jesji. This bum3 the skiOjjsnd the_ same time produces contractions of the muscles, If put to the side of the jaw it would make every tooth ache/ \ distinguished surgeon of whom questions were asked concerning ihe machine said — *The best away to explain it is to give you actual experience, then you will know how it feels. Here is a Fndic induction coil. Now, let me place this electrode in your, hand. There/ *Oh V ex* claimed the inquirer, a tingling, thrill-* ing sensation raa through every finger and his hand closed iu an involuntry grasp. • Does it hurt ?* aeked the doctor. 'A. little/ * Well, we'll try again. Now, you see, I pull this tube further out. I again touch it to your hand and ' • Whoop»'. shouted the victim; * take it away!'. The feeling was as if the hand were crushed in a vyce. Every nerve ached and trembled with pain. ' That hurt, did it? Whv, that's nothing. Here is something of a very different sort/ He fastened to one wire a small wet sponge, and to the other something like a paint brush with the brush part made of fine wire. He put the sponge into the visitor's hand, and then touched the back of his hands with the wire brush. The pain was unbearable, The surface of the skiu was scorched and the muscles of the bands were contracted in a violent manner,' That is called the electric scourge/ said the doctor. If it were dark yon conld see sparks fly 'from each wire. Imagine the effects if the electricity were ten times more powerful' ' Could any man bear that torture ?'' I think not; many would confess under it but it is a question what confidence could beplaced in such a confession, A man would confess anything to escape the agony. What could yon compare the pain to ? 'It would be the same as burning alive. * Would it injure the man? 'No—-not unless the pain drove him insane. If the battery was too powerful it would kill at once. Applied to some parts of the body the scourge hurts more than on other parts.