Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1902 — A WHEEL OF DEATH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A WHEEL OF DEATH.

Herbert Spencer Would Kill Criminals by Producing Apoplexy. Herbert Spencer, the most distinguished philosopher, scientist and student of sociological problems of this age, has advanced a new theory for the killing of criminals, and on the face of it his plan looks plausible. Spencer would substitute apoplexy, artificially produced, for all other agencies of dath. His plan would be to place the condemned man upon a rotary table, with

the victim’s head at the center and the feet at the periphery, then set the table

in rapid motion. Spencer describes what would happen in his recently published book, “Facts and Comments.” He says: “The effects of rotation Would be first faintness, and then insensibility—an insensibility soon made permanent if rotation was continued. For when, after a few revolutions at considerable speed, the brain has been emptied of blood, as well as the ascending aorta and in large measure the heart, cessation could not be followed by a back-flow from the lower parts of the body ’sufficient to re-establish the actions of the organs thus thrown out of gear; and, unquestionably, continuance of rotation for some time would make revival altogether impossible.” Death, almost immediate and certainly painless, has be£n caused, in experiments already made with dogs, using • similar appliance.