Death -- accidental
and otherwise

HOW do young people these days learn about sex and reproduction outside of biology class?

My sister still blushes when she relates how, 20 years ago, she found the book "The Joy of Sex," covered in immaculate white paper, hidden deep in the night table of my parents' bedroom. I was not as lucky, although I knew about anatomy long before I saw pornography because my aunt left all her medical textbooks in our home. The pictures in those thick, dark books gave me a graphic look at all known diseases. Naturally, the venereal ones scared me into chastity to this day.

With this kind of background, I thought I was prepared for the 1934 textbook "Legal Medicine" by Dr. Sixto de los Angeles, but the book and its pictures were so distressing I had nightmares two nights in a row after reading it.

One dream had me in Fort Santiago preparing to face a firing squad. I was dressed in black, Spanish was spoken, and (pardon the presumption) there was a signature bowler hat on my table. While Jose Rizal had a steady pulse shortly before his execution, I was shaking uncontrollably and explained it away as Parkinson's disease. Like a British monarch whose head rolled centuries before, I explained that my trembling was due to the cold, not fear. But terror it was that I felt -- not of dying but of pain before death. What if the fatal bullet missed its mark? I would have to be shot a second time! We all know that in the Philippines if anything can go wrong, it probably will.

Capital punishment over the centuries has changed and improved to ensure that the victim feels very little pain. I thought the garrote, the guillotine, the electric chair and now lethal injection, were humane methods of execution until I read De los Angeles' description of an execution:

"The condemned is strapped to the chair with large leather belts and buckles. A brass band is strapped around his right ankle and a wire cap, insulated with a moistened cloth pad, is placed over his head. The brass band is connected to the positive pole while a wire from the cap leads to the negative pole. When the switch is turned on, the fatal electric current [from 1,300 to 2,000 volts] traverses the whole body and produces a rapid death."

De los Angeles considered this method of execution, "efficient, rapid and painless when properly performed." But then on Sept. 26, 1925, Prisoner No. 19543-P was electrocuted thrice! De los Angeles stated, "It was observed, however, that the impairment of the cerebral function was more instantaneous or relatively more immediate; hence the inference that such a method of execution is painless." But nobody has survived the electric chair to validate this.

Two hours and 50 minutes later an autopsy was done. Part of the report reads:

"Marked post-mortem rigidity was present and no complete hypostatic lividity had yet appeared. Due to this markedly strong contraction of all muscles, the head was firmly thrown backwards, the neck was apparently shortened, the shoulders raised, the hands semi-clenched and the toes extended. The skin surrounding the eyes and the mouth were slightly corrugated due to the same excessive strong contraction of the circular muscles of the said regions, giving the face of the deceased an expression of agony or pain. The whole body was livid, especially the face and the tips of the fingers. The surfaces of the eyeballs were opaque and were covered with a moderately thick layer of a whitish turbid material..."

I'm glad the electric chair is a thing of the past. Surely, a report on lethal injection will read the same way and horrify the sane in us to rethink the death penalty.

De los Angeles provided statistics, a summary of cases in Manila that required examination by the UP Department of Legal Medicine 1925-1931. Deaths were grouped into accidental and homicidal and the causes were listed as follows:

Accidental death: traffic (car, train, truck, "carromata" horse-drawn carriage), 299; drowning, 210; burning, 97; falling from a height, 65; infected wounds and tetanus, 43; poisoning, 24; abortion and stillbirth, 25; electric shock, 24; bitten, horned, kicked by animals, 18; cerebral hemorrhage, 57; struck by falling objects, nine; firearms, six; explosives, three; suffocation, four; lightning, three; lacerated wounds, 10; foreign body esophagus, two; ruptured liver and other organs, 19; crushed by machinery, one; boat collision, two; nephritis, one; crushed in elevator, one; fractures (violent causes), 74; and stab wound, one. Death in homicidal cases: sharp cutting instruments, 125; firearms, 29; blunt instruments, 33; poisoning, seven; abortion, nine; strangulation, three; infanticide, 11; suffocation, one.

The yearly distribution by sex of total suicide cases: poisoning -- 26 Male, 13 Female; cutting instruments -- 16M, 6F; hanging -- 15M, 7F; firearms -- 5M, 2F; drowning --15M, 7F; jumping from height -- 3M, 0F; run over by train -- 2M, 0F. This disproves the widely held notion that women are more prone to suicide than men. The highest number of suicides was recorded in 1931, and the lowest in 1926. The highest suicide month, on average was April, and lowest, December. Most males preferred to die in April, women in February. The age bracket for most suicides was 21 to 30 years old. There were no cases for 61 to 68 years and 71 to 77 years. But there were isolated cases of suicide at age 78, 85 and 104.

De los Angeles provides data to discern patterns that can help us avoid crime in the present.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu