Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1

by R. A. Witthaus; Tracy C. Becker

Alternating currents of from 1,600 to 1,700 volts and upward may be considered fatal currents, and as capable of producing death when contact is perfect. Dr. MacDonald goes so far as to say: No human being could survive the passage through his body of an alternating current of more than 1,500 volts for a period of even twenty seconds, contact being perfect.”

The physical phenomena caused in the body by electrocution as at present conducted are comparatively simple, and such as we should logically expect. The instant the body of the patient enters into the circuit of the current, all the voluntary muscles appear to be thrown into a condition of violent contraction which continues so long as the current lasts, and on cessation of the current is replaced by a condition of extreme muscular relaxation. All consciousness is apparently lost immediately on the application of the current. This probably has never returned in any case, but on the removal of the body from the circuit of the current the relaxation of the muscles causes movement, and sometimes, as in the case of Kemmler, slight spasmodic movements of the chest have occurred. The pupils in this case were dilated. The condition of contraction and rigidity is renewed at each new application of the current, to cease immediately when the current is removed.

In Kemmler chest movements and possibly heart-beat occurred after the first contact, the former perhaps half a minute after the cessation of the current.

In Slocum there were chest movements and radial pulsation after the first contact. In Smiler no movement of the chest, but radial pulsation after the third contact. In Jugigo a slight fluttering of the radial pulse when final contact was broken, which rapidly ceased. In Hood no movement or pulse-beat.

In some of the patients superficial burns have been caused by imperfect contact of the electrodes, either on the head or at the position of the lower electrode. In Kemmler’s case the cerebral cortex was somewhat affected under the head-electrode.

The practical effect of the application of the current to the criminal fastened in the death-chair, as seen by the bystander, is that immediately on its reaching him the whole body is straightened and rendered rigid in extension, the extremities tend to straighten out, and the face may grow red and turgid. There is reported at times swelling and turgidity of the neck. The whole body remains in this tetanic, stiffened condition until the removal of the current, when all the muscles relax and the body sinks back into the chair in a state of complete muscular collapse.

MENTAL OR PSYCHICAL SYMPTOMS.

The third class of results which are found after electrical shocks from high-tension currents are the mental or psychical. By the use of these terms we do not wish to imply that they are voluntary. They are, however, so far as our present knowledge of pathology reaches, largely functional. This is precisely the class of cases which, when resulting from railway accidents, are placed under the head of railway-brain or railway-spine. They may be considered in the present state of our knowledge as traumatic functional neuroses, though it is probable that when our means of examination and investigation are more complete we may succeed in discovering a visible or perceptible lesion. The symptoms affecting motion and sensation in these cases are frequently accompanied by others of an emotional character, and in many cases there seem to be partially or wholly voluntary conditions and symptoms with the involuntary. There is in many cases a characteristic loss or diminution of the force and power of volition, but in others this is not perceptible.

These conditions are so well known when produced by other causes that we do not consider it proper to enter into a full consideration of them here, but we cannot leave this important subject without a few general remarks.

No form of affection or disease has caused more discussion among the medical profession or figured more prominently in the courts than this, and even now there are many questions in relation to these conditions still under dispute. Our own view, confirmed both by observation and experience, is that the tendency in New England, at least, has been on the whole to underrate the severity, the duration, and the amount of suffering caused by these conditions. That because there have been cases of malingering, of deception, and of rapid cure after the receipt of damages, and because in addition to this a certain visible emotional and at times apparently controllable element exists, the profession, and above all the laity, are led to conclude that this forms the essential condition and basis of the disease. On the contrary, in a very large proportion of cases the symptoms are such as cannot possibly be voluntarily assumed; they produce extreme discomfort and often much suffering for the patient, and frequently last for years, rendering their victims incapable of carrying on their former occupations.