Richmond Enquirer

EXECUTION OF WEEMS, AND GALVANIC EXPERIMENTS UPON HIS BODY.

The reader will recollect that an account was published a short time since of the extraordinary and horrific effects produced on a human corpse, by galvanic experiments made at Glasgow. It appears by the following article, that other experiments of the same kind have since been made in Cambridge, (Eng.) but not with the same results. Perhaps the body last operated upon, having been suspended an hour, had been dead too long.

London, August 13....This unfortunate criminal, convicted of the murder of his wife, was executed on Friday the 6th inst. at Cambridge, in the presence of a vast number of spectators. His behavior after condemnation was consistent with his awful situation, and he met his ignominious fate with firmness.

The body, after having been suspended an hour, was lowered from the scaffold, and was immediately conveyed in a cart to the Chemical Lecture room, in the Botanical Garden, where Professor Cumming had prepared his powerful galvanic battery, with the intention of repeating some of the experiments lately described by Dr. Ure, of Glasgow, in the Journal of the Royal Institution.

We shall now proceed to state the result of the experiments upon the body of Weems.

Exp. 1.—One wire was applied to a small incision in the skin of the neck over the par vagum, and the other to one made between the 6th and 7th rib; when, at each discharge of the battery, the chest was disturbed in a manner similar to a slight shuddering from cold; the period of the shuddering corresponding with the number of plates struck by the operator in the last trough.

Exp. 2.—The par vagum was laid bare, and one of the wires passed under it; the other was placed in contact with the diaphragm, through an incision made deeper than the last between the 6th and 7th rib. The contractions were evidently stronger than in the last experiment, and to all appearance confined to the same set of muscles. Not the smallest action of the diaphragm was perceptible.

Exp. 4.—One wire was placed under the supra-orbital nerve, the other remaining under the par vagum; at each discharge of the battery it produced considerable action of the muscles of the face, and more particularly on the side to which it was applied, tho' not expressive of any of the mental affections of life; it might more properly be called a convulsive twitching.

Exp. 6.—The wire being passed under the ulnar nerve at its separation from the axillary plexus, the electric circuit was completed by bringing the other in contact with the radial nerve at the wrist. The flexor muscles of the arm and hand were thrown into strong action, the arm being drawn up, and the fist closing with considerable force. In this experiment, the muscular contractions were more strongly marked than in any of the preceding.

Exp. 7th, consisted in placing the wires in contact with the spinal marrow between the 3d and 4th cervical vertebrae and the tibial nerve, in its passage behind the inner ankle. A more extensive, though less vigorous effect followed this exhibition of the galvanic influence than in any of the above mentioned experiments: most of the muscles of the trunk and extremities answered feebly the discharges of the battery.

The galvanic battery used in these experiments, consisted of 220 pairs of double six inch plates; it was charged with dilute sulphuric and fuming nitrous acid, and was in a state of intense action. The galvanic influence was applied in the same manner as at Glasgow, by connecting the ends of the battery with the nerves to be acted upon, and running one of the connecting wires over the ends of the plates to the last trough.

The experiments commenced at 25 minutes past one, and occupied about an hour; the temperature of the body was 93 deg.; there was no dislocation of the neck, and no distortion of the countenance.

The necessary dissections were executed by Mr. Okes.

From the account given by Dr. Ure, they had been led to form, perhaps too sanguine an expectation of the efficacy of galvanism in restoring suspended animation; it is therefore to be regretted that although undertaken with a battery at least equally powerful, and with every attention to ensure success, these experiments afford no confirmation of the hopes held out by those at Glasgow.