Note 122 — Chapter XII · OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE DEATH OF THE BRAIN OVER THAT OF ALL THE ORGANS.

Death does not always take place in the same way. It has been remarked, for example, that those who were hung at Lyons died quicker than those who were hung at Paris. In seeking for the cause of this difference, it was ascertained that in those who were executed at Lyons there was almost always a luxation of the first or the second vertebra, which was owing to a rotatory motion, which the executioner gave to the criminal in throwing him from the scaffold. The death was quick, because it was produced by compression or laceration of the spinal marrow; it was slower in the other case in which it was only the result of asphyxia.