[net.general] Guillotine anyone?

sr (11/11/82)

I remember reading about a member of the French Royal Academy
who was sentenced to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
Recall that this was during the Enlightenment. He arranged for
an assistant of his to be present on the scaffold at the
appointed hour. The assistant was responsible for counting
how many times the decapitated head blinked - an experiment,
you see, to determine how quickly loss of consciousness
occured. I think I saw this in E.T. Bell's 'Men of Mathematics',
but cannot locate my copy. Can anyone in net-land identify the
source?
(Prompted by the telecast of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', of course)
				not afraid to veg out on prime time
				Steve Radtke