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Thunk!

Question: Does beheading hurt? And, if so, for how long is the severed head
aware of its plight?

Answer: Yes, beheading hurts. How much depends on the executioner鈥檚 skill, or
lack of it.

When Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringay Castle in 1587, a
clumsy headsman gave her three strokes without quite managing to sever her head.
The headsman then had to saw though the skin and gristle with his sheath knife
before the job could be regarded as complete. The profound, protracted groan
Mary gave when the axe first hit left the horrified witnesses in no doubt that
her pain was excruciating.

How long is the interval of consciousness after the head is severed? In
France, in the days of the guillotine, some of the condemned were asked to blink
their eyes if they were still conscious after the knife fell. Reportedly, their
heads blinked for up to 30 seconds after decapitation. How much of this was
voluntary and how much due to reflex nerve action is speculation. Most nations
with science sophisticated enough to determine this question have long since
abandoned decapitation as a legal tool.

Dale McIntyre

University of Cambridge

Answer: Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist who lived between 1743 and
1794, was caught up in the revolution and faced beheading. He asked friends to
observe closely as he would continue blinking as long as possible after being
killed. He was reported to have blinked for 15 seconds after decapitation.

A. Gryant

Sydney

The story of Antoine Lavoisier鈥檚 last heroic service for science has been
reported many times but unfortunately appears to have no basis in fact. It is
not given in any contemporary account we have been able to find, nor in the
standard accounts of his life and death. As pointed out above, however, there
have been attempts to ascertain if a severed head retains consciousness. The
most reliable account appears to be that given below鈥擡d

Answer: A particularly detailed report comes from Dr Beaurieux who, under
perfect circumstances, experimented with the head of the murderer Languille,
guillotined at 5.30 am on 28 June, 1905. (From A History of the
Guillotine by Alister Kershaw. His source is Archives d鈥橝nthropologie
Criminelle, 1905):

鈥淗ere, then, is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation:
the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic
contractions for about five or six seconds . . . I waited for several seconds.
The spasmodic movements ceased. The face relaxed, the lids half closed on the
eyeballs, leaving only the white of the conjunctiva visible, exactly as in the
dying whom we have occasion to see every day in the exercise of our profession,
or as in those just dead. It was then that I called in a strong, sharp voice:
`Languille!鈥� I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic
contractions . . . Next Languille鈥檚 eyes very definitely fixed themselves on
mine and the pupils focused themselves . . . After several seconds, the eyelids
closed again, slowly and evenly, and the head took on the same appearance as it
had had before I called out.

鈥淚t was at that point that I called out again and, once more, without any
spasm, slowly, the eyelids lifted and undeniably living eyes fixed themselves on
mine with perhaps even more penetration than the first time. Then there was a
further closing of the eyelids, but now less complete. I attempted the effect of
a third call; there was no further movement and the eyes took on the glazed look
which they have in the dead.

鈥淚 have just recounted to you with rigorous exactness what I was able to
observe. The whole thing had lasted twenty-five to thirty seconds.鈥�

For further details see www.metaphor.dk/guillotine

Mike Snowden

London

If indeed a severed head remains conscious for a short while then the
following procedure might be regarded as humane鈥攁ssuming the purpose was
to convince the dying man he was flying to heaven鈥擡d

Answer: Dr Livingstone wrote that Africans he encountered were aware that
consciousness is not lost immediately. He recounts how they bent a springy
sapling and tied cords from it under the ears of a man to be decapitated so that
his last few moments of awareness would be of flying through the air.

John Rudge

Harlington, Middlesex

However quickly consciousness is lost, there is little doubt that the
procedure must produce a painful few seconds. In 1983, Harold Hillman, then
reader in physiology at the University of Surrey, wrote an account of the
suffering caused by different methods of execution for New Scientist (27
October, p 276) at the time when the World Medical Association had just
discussed attitudes of physicians to capital punishment. This is what Hillman
said about the guillotine:

鈥淭he guillotine was named after the French deputy who proposed the use of the
device in 1789. It was tested on corpses at the Bicetre Hospital in Paris, and
employed by the French Revolution in 1792. It was introduced as a swift and
painless device鈥攁s Joseph-Ignace Guillotin believed鈥� to extend to
all citizens the advantages of a technique used only on noblemen. Although
people believe that Guillotin invented the device, it had been used in Italy,
Germany, France and Scotland in the 16th century.

鈥淕uillotining was considered more humane because the blade was sharper and
execution was more rapid than accomplished with an axe. Death occurs due to
separation of the brain and spinal cord, after transection of the surrounding
tissues. This must cause acute and possibly severe pain. Consciousness is
probably lost within 2-3 seconds, due to a rapid fall of intracranial perfusion
of blood.

鈥淭here are accounts of the eyes looking around from the severed head, and
animals may do this when they are guillotined for experiments in which their
organs are to be excised or their brain biochemistry is to be examined
谤补辫颈诲濒测.鈥�

Thanks to Tony Corless for drawing our attention to this article.

This week鈥檚 question

Older model: I read it takes more energy to make a car鈥攕tarting from
raw materials 鈥攖han it consumes in fuel in its lifetime. Is this true? If
so, shouldn鈥檛 governments or environmentalists urge us to run 鈥渙ld bangers鈥� for
longer, rather than buying new fuel-efficient cars?

Russell Viner

Wokingham, Berkshire