become associated, is equally humane; an instant terminates the mortal sufferings of the criminal; for this reason it was originally adopted, and when we consider that it superceded the barbarous punishment of breaking on the wheel, previously in use, and the clumsy and uncertain method of decapitation by the sword or axe, we feel ourselves justified, in spite of popular prejudice, in designating the guillotine[1] an invention of humanity.
Decapitation is also a punishment known in the law of England, and as a more dignified and impressive death, is reserved for the execution of nobles, or distinguished commoners, in cases of high treason, the rest of the barbarous sentence (now abolished by act of parliament), and the previous sentence of hanging, being dispensed with by the king's authority.
The barbarous punishment of burning, formerly part of the law, is no longer in use; Catharine Hayes, to whose case we have alluded (vol. ii, p. 73), was the last who suffered in this manner.
On the subject of imprisonment we have already commented, (vol. ii, p. 112), and from the very general attention now excited, as well by the discovery of abuses, as by an encreasing spirit of humanity, we may expect the best results.
Of punishment, not capital, there are two which require medical consideration; the one is military flogging, the other the novel invention of the treadmill. On the first of these, we might have had more
- ↑ Or Guillot's daughter, so named from a physician of the name of Guillot, its inventor; it is singular, that a somewhat similar engine, which is or was preserved in the Tower of London, was called the Maiden in Scotland, and in England the Earl of Exeter's daughter. By the same figure, the Gunner's daughter is the carriage to which a sailor is lashed for punishment.
