mankind, can only justify itself in taking human life as a punishment for violation of laws; inflicting the death penalty, where necessary, for the safety of society, and to deter others from the commission of crime.

2. That the State has not the right to torture the criminal, nor to inflict any punishment whatever in any vindictive spirit, or by way of retaliation for the crime.

"The Committee submitted a draft of a Bill, and recommend: "(a) That executions should be private;

(b) That the details of the execution should not be furnished to the public press; and

(e) That the bodies should be delivered to medical schools for dissection in aid of science, or be buried in the prison yard. "The idea of punishment for crime has colored all human laws.

"Such legislation has been called punitive for centuries. "These statutes are denominated penal in all the codes. "It is little more than half a century since hanging was the penalty in England for more than one hundred statutory offenses, many of which are now regarded as trivial.

"Nearly all of these are abolished; but we still call the. measure of punishment penalties, and we even say, 'the death penalty' when we discuss it, and use the term 'capital punishment for judicial killing.

"The report of the Legislative Commission, considered in its broadest and ablest aspect, outside the abolition of hanging and substituting the electric current, lies in claiming that the universal public judgment and opinion of mankind should be recognized by the law-making power, declaring:

"That the penalty for the violations of the law in what are called 'capital cases' should not hereafter be regarded or treated as punitory.

That the State does not claim the right of inflicting any punishment upon the homicide in a vindictive or retaliatory sense, or in any degree or view as 'punitory' or compensatory for the act committed.

"That beyond the protection of society, the rights of men, and what is called the 'deterrent effect of human punishment,

the State has neither the right nor wish to go.”

We are not sure that we follow our learned author here, or the Committee of whose report he so much approves. If he means that we do not execute criminals for their own good, or for the sake of abstract justice, or to feed our revenge, but simply to "deter others in all time coming from the like offense," we do not think that there is any discrepancy between the law-making power and "the universal public judgment and opinion of mankind." Nor do we appreciate the objection to the use of the word punishment or penalty as applied to a capital sentence. We do not inquire too closely into the signification and the Greek root of these two words, but we think that both the words, in accordance with the ordinary meaning attached to them by those who use the English language, are quite appropriately used of capital sentences. In most cases sentences are inflicted upon offenders solely for the sake of their deterrent effect. We sentence a man to the cat or to penal servitude not for his own sake or for the sake of abstract justice, but for the good of society; and if that consideration in the case of hanging renders the word punish inappropriate, it does so equally in the case of flogging and imprisonment.

The Legislature consulted the Medico-Legal Society of New York, and that body appointed a committee, which prepared a report, which was adopted by the Society and transmitted to the Legislature. The leading recommendations in that report were as follows:

"4. That hanging should be abolished as cruel and contrary to the public sense of our civilization.

"5. That as a substitute for the present death penalty we would recommend:

"(1) Death by the electric current, or—

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(2) Death by hypodermic or other injection of poison, or— "(3) Death by carbonic oxide gas injected into a small room in each jail, as recommended by Professor John H. Packard (Medico-Legal Papers, vol. iii. p. 521), giving our preference to the first, or death by electric current.

"6. That in our judgment executions should be private, and not public.

7. That if it were possible to prevent the publication of details of executions in the public press, it would be a public good.

8. That the bodies of criminals should be delivered to the medical schools, after execution, for dissection."

Thereafter the Legislature of New York passed a law, which received the approval of Governor Hill, and of which the following are the most important provisions:

"S 505. The punishment of death must, in every case, be inflicted by causing to pass through the body of the convict a current of electricity of sufficient intensity to cause death, and the application of such current must be continued until such convict is dead.

"§ 507. It is the duty of the agent and warden to be present at the execution, and to invite the presence, by at least three days' previous notice, of a Justice of the Supreme Court, the district attorney, and the sheriff of the county wherein the conviction was had, together with two physicians and twelve reputable citizens of full age, to be selected by said agent and warden. Such agent and warden must, at the request of the criminal, permit ministers of the gospel, priests or clergymen of any religious denomination, not exceeding two, to be present at the execution; and, in addition to the persons designated above, he may also appoint seven assistants or deputysheriff's who may attend the execution. He shall permit no other person to be present at such execution, except those designated in this section. Immediately after the execution, a post-mortem examination of the body of the convict shall be made by the physicians present at the execution, and their report in writing, stating the nature of the examination so made by them, shall be annexed to the certificate hereinafter mentioned, and filed therewith. After such post-mortem examination, the body, unless claimed by some relative or relatives of the person so executed, shall be interred in the graveyard or cemetery attached to the prison, with a sufficient quantity of quick-lime to consume such body without delay; and no religious or other services shall be held over the remains after such execution, except within the walls of the prison where said execution took

place, and only in the presence of the officers of said prison, the person conducting said services, and the immediate family and relatives of said deceased prisoner. No account of the details of any such execution, beyond the statement of the fact that such convict was on the day in question, duly executed according to law at the prison, shall be published in any newspaper. Any person who shall violate or omit to comply with any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

As soon as the law was passed, the indefatigable President of the Medico-Legal Society again addressed himself to the

matter:

"This statute going into, effect January 1, 1889, the writer felt it the duty of the body to consider, for the benefit of public officials, 'what was the best method of carrying the same into effect,' and recommended to the Society the appointment of a committee to consider the subject and report.

"That Committee made a detailed report, which was, after discussion, unanimously adopted by the body."

The report is an elaborate document, and sets forth the results of a number of experiments upon dogs, calves and a horse. The result at which the Society arrive as to the best means in which to apply the fatal current, is as follows:

"After mature deliberation we recommend that the death current be administered to the criminal in the following

manner:

"A stout table, covered with rubber cloth and having holes along its borders for binding, or a strong chair, should be procured. The prisoner lying on his back, or sitting, should be firmly bound on this table, or in the chair. One electrode should be so inserted into the table, or into the back of the chair, that it will impinge upon the spine between the shoulders. The head should be secured by means of a sort of helmet fastened to the table or back of the chair, and to this helmet the other pole should be so joined as to press firmly with its end upon the top of the head. We think a chair is preferable to a table. The rheophores can be led off to the dynamo through the floor or to another room, and the instru

ment for closing the circuit can be attached to the wall.

"The electrodes should be of metal, between one and four inches in diameter, covered with a thick layer of sponge or chamois skin.

"The poles and the skin and hair at the points of contact should be thoroughly wet with a warm aqueous solution of common salt. The hair should be cut short. Provision should be made for preventing any moisture reaching from one electrode to the other.

"A dynamo capable of generating an electro-motive force of at least 3000 volts should be employed, and a current used with a potential between 1000 and 1500 volts, according to the resistance of the criminal.

"The alternating current should be made use of, with alternations not fewer than 300 per second. Such a current allowed to passed for from fifteen to thirty seconds will insure death."

When one considers that these sentences set forth the means to be employed in deliberately taking a human life, it is hardly possible to imagine anything more gruesome than the scientific precision of the details. The objection that it is dangerous to argue from the effects of electricity upon animals to its action upon man, is met in the report in this wise:

"If any doubt should exist in the minds of some that electricity would not necessarily be fatal to man, because it has been successfully applied to lower animals, we have but to call attention to the fact that since 1883, some 200 persons have been killed, as we are credibly informed, by the handling of electric lighting wires."

We disapprove of the change which has been effected in the mode of executing the capital sentence by the New York Legislature. That change, and the whole argument upon which it rests, seem based upon the conception that the destruction of life, is the object of capital punishment. The matter is treated as though the criminal were a dangerous animal, or a homicidal maniac, or a being smitten with an incuraable and contagious malady, whom it was desirable to remove from the world. In such circumstances the arguments in favor