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Does beheading hurt? And, if so, for how long is the severed head aware of its plight?
New Scientist ^

Posted on 06/20/2002 9:06:00 AM PDT by dead

Answer:

Yes, beheading hurts. How much depends on the executioner's skill, or lack of it.

When Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringay Castle in 1587, a clumsy headsman gave her three strokes without quite managing to sever her head. The headsman then had to saw though the skin and gristle with his sheath knife before the job could be regarded as complete. The profound, protracted groan Mary gave when the axe first hit left the horrified witnesses in no doubt that her pain was excruciating.

How long is the interval of consciousness after the head is severed? In France, in the days of the guillotine, some of the condemned were asked to blink their eyes if they were still conscious after the knife fell. Reportedly, their heads blinked for up to 30 seconds after decapitation. How much of this was voluntary and how much due to reflex nerve action is speculation. Most nations with science sophisticated enough to determine this question have long since abandoned decapitation as a legal tool.

Dale McIntyre, University of Cambridge

Answer:

Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist who lived between 1743 and 1794, was caught up in the revolution and faced beheading. He asked friends to observe closely as he would continue blinking as long as possible after being killed. He was reported to have blinked for 15 seconds after decapitation.

A. Gryant, Sydney

Answer:

The story of Antoine Lavoisier's last heroic service for science has been reported many times but unfortunately appears to have no basis in fact. It is not given in any contemporary account we have been able to find, nor in the standard accounts of his life and death. As pointed out above, however, there have been attempts to ascertain if a severed head retains consciousness. The most reliable account appears to be that given below.

editor,

Answer:

A particularly detailed report comes from Dr Beaurieux who, under perfect circumstances, experimented with the head of the murderer Languille, guillotined at 5.30 am on 28 June, 1905. (From A History of the Guillotine by Alister Kershaw. His source is Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, 1905):

"Here, then, is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation: the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds . . . I waited for several seconds. The spasmodic movements ceased. The face relaxed, the lids half closed on the eyeballs, leaving only the white of the conjunctiva visible, exactly as in the dying whom we have occasion to see every day in the exercise of our profession, or as in those just dead. It was then that I called in a strong, sharp voice: 'Languille!' I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions . . . Next Languille's eyes very definitely fixed themselves on mine and the pupils focused themselves . . . After several seconds, the eyelids closed again, slowly and evenly, and the head took on the same appearance as it had had before I called out.

"It was at that point that I called out again and, once more, without any spasm, slowly, the eyelids lifted and undeniably living eyes fixed themselves on mine with perhaps even more penetration than the first time. Then there was a further closing of the eyelids, but now less complete. I attempted the effect of a third call; there was no further movement and the eyes took on the glazed look which they have in the dead.

"I have just recounted to you with rigorous exactness what I was able to observe. The whole thing had lasted twenty-five to thirty seconds."

For further details see www.metaphor.dk/guillotine

Mike Snowden, London

Answer:

If indeed a severed head remains conscious for a short while then the following procedure might be regarded as humane--assuming the purpose was to convince the dying man he was flying to heaven.

editor,

Answer:

Dr Livingstone wrote that Africans he encountered were aware that consciousness is not lost immediately. He recounts how they bent a springy sapling and tied cords from it under the ears of a man to be decapitated so that his last few moments of awareness would be of flying through the air.

John Rudge, Harlington, Middlesex

Answer:

However quickly consciousness is lost, there is little doubt that the procedure must produce a painful few seconds. In 1983, Harold Hillman, then reader in physiology at the University of Surrey, wrote an account of the suffering caused by different methods of execution for New Scientist(27 October, p 276) at the time when the World Medical Association had just discussed attitudes of physicians to capital punishment. This is what Hillman said about the guillotine:

"The guillotine was named after the French deputy who proposed the use of the device in 1789. It was tested on corpses at the Bicetre Hospital in Paris, and employed by the French Revolution in 1792. It was introduced as a swift and painless device--as Joseph-Ignace Guillotin believed-- to extend to all citizens the advantages of a technique used only on noblemen. Although people believe that Guillotin invented the device, it had been used in Italy, Germany, France and Scotland in the 16th century.

"Guillotining was considered more humane because the blade was sharper and execution was more rapid than accomplished with an axe. Death occurs due to separation of the brain and spinal cord, after transection of the surrounding tissues. This must cause acute and possibly severe pain. Consciousness is probably lost within 2-3 seconds, due to a rapid fall of intracranial perfusion of blood.

"There are accounts of the eyes looking around from the severed head, and animals may do this when they are guillotined for experiments in which their organs are to be excised or their brain biochemistry is to be examined rapidly."

Thanks to Tony Corless for drawing our attention to this article.

editor,


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: artificialintel; bicameralmind; consciousness; evetheory

1 posted on 06/20/2002 9:06:01 AM PDT by dead
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To: dead
Too much information!
2 posted on 06/20/2002 9:08:18 AM PDT by NYS_Eric
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To: dead
Why?
3 posted on 06/20/2002 9:08:24 AM PDT by mhking
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To: mhking
I have no idea.

I just read it and found it interesting.

4 posted on 06/20/2002 9:10:45 AM PDT by dead
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To: dead
The Nazi's revived the idea of beheading with a typically sadistic twist. Rather then having the person to be executed placed face down they would place them face up so they could see the blade coming. Thereby increasing the terror of their last few seconds.

a.cricket
5 posted on 06/20/2002 9:13:42 AM PDT by another cricket
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To: dead
http://www.straightdope.com has an article on this subject as well. Cecil himself expressed skepticism, but changed his mind after hearing a few accounts.

The story that got me was about a soldier in South Korea who was involved in a car accident, his buddy was decapitated in the accident, and he watched the guy as his eyes went back and forth from his now detached body, back to his friend, and a look of horror as his he faded away. Ugh.

6 posted on 06/20/2002 9:29:36 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: dead
Dr Livingstone wrote that Africans he encountered were aware that consciousness is not lost immediately. He recounts how they bent a springy sapling and tied cords from it under the ears of a man to be decapitated so that his last few moments of awareness would be of flying through the air.

ROTFLMAO!!!!
Thanks, dead, I needed that laugh today!

7 posted on 06/20/2002 9:47:19 AM PDT by Right_Wing_Mole_In_Seattle
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To: Right_Wing_Mole_In_Seattle
You know, I didn't laugh at first, but now that I think about that image, it really is funny.

Look at me! I'm a birdy!

8 posted on 06/20/2002 10:21:17 AM PDT by dead
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To: Freedom4US
Uggg is right.
9 posted on 06/20/2002 10:21:59 AM PDT by dead
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To: dead
Jeez...I Just know this is gonna show up in my dreams tonight..thanks alot.
10 posted on 06/20/2002 6:40:25 PM PDT by Sungirl
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To: another cricket
Ahhhh yes, the Nazi "falbeil" (literally, "sword-falling machine"). An all-metal, high-powered guillotine... the kind used to execute the members of the White Rose conspirators.

Just plum brutal.

11 posted on 06/21/2002 8:00:10 AM PDT by Darth Sidious
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