100 YEARS AGO

In your account of the late Dr. Haughton ⃛ I see no mention of a somewhat fantastic instance of his versatility — namely, his investigation into the most merciful way of hanging criminals. It was, I believe, entirely owing to him that the present method of the “long drop” was introduced. According to the older method the rope was so arranged that the culprit fell barely knee deep, all the rest of his body being in view above the scaffold. He died usually by strangulation, sometimes combined with apoplexy, after what seemed to be a protracted agony. Now, he is allowed to fall through some 10 feet, more or less, according to his estimated bulk and weight, and he dies with a broken neck more painlessly than virtuous persons in their own beds. The problem was to find out the length of drop that would suffice to break the neck bone, but would be insufficient to tear off the head. Dr. Haughton experimented on the tensile strengths of the spine and of the muscles, and he published a formula for the length of drop, dependent on the height and weight of the culprit. ⃛ It should be mentioned that a case actually occurred in which the drop was too deep, and the head of the criminal became wholly detached, and the legal doubt arose whether under those circumstances the sentence of being “hanged by the neck” had been duly carried out.

From Nature 25 November 1897.

50 YEARS AGO

In The Condor of July-August 1947 (49, No. 4), Dean Amadon gives an account of an investigation which he has made into the weight of the largest known bird. The ostrich ( Struthio camelus), largest of living birds, was far surpassed in size by the elephant bird ( Aepyornis maximus) of Madagascar; the larger of the New Zealand moas such as Dinoris were intermediate in size. The moas and elephant birds were exterminated by the natives of these islands and are known only from sub-fossil remains of skeletons, eggs and feathers.

From Nature 29 November 1947.

Many more abstracts like these can be found in ABedside Nature: Genius and Eccentricity in Science, 1869-1953 , a 266-page book edited by Walter Gratzer. Contact David Plant. e-mail: subscriptions@nature.com