Dr. Pinel, a French physiologist, has been trying to "
demoralize the guillotine" by declaring that it does not cause instant death. The body, he says, dies, but the blood in the brain is retained, the brain being shielded from atmospheric pressure, the nerves of hearing, sight, and smell remain, and all the apparatus of intellect is present. This condition, which is as frightful as any dream of Edgar Poe's, may last, he thinks, three hours. A general belief in this theory would at once abolish the guillotine, but the blood, as the Lancet explains, though retained would become deoxydized in about 90 seconds, when all consciousness must absolutely cease. More- over, owing to the tremendous nervous shock which must be suffered in decapitation, it is to the last degree improbable that consciousness —which is so constantly suspended even by a slight one—should endure even for those ninety seconds. It is nearly certain that the phenomenon we call death, whatever that may be, supervenes instantly, quite certain that it is not delayed many seconds.
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