290 - Minovici, N.S.

Minovici, N.S. Study on Hanging. Paris, Maloine 1905. Large 8°. 57 ill., 268 pp., 1 leaf. Contemporary half-leather (scuffed). From the series "Bibliothèque de criminologie." Vol. 24. - Nicolae Minovici (1868–1941), the physician who hanged himself for science. In the first decade of the 20th century, while serving as professor of forensic medicine at the National Academy of Sciences in Bucharest, Nicolae Minovici undertook a thorough investigation of death by hanging. Minovici began his self-hanging experiments by constructing a device for self-asphyxiation—a noose tied to a rope that ran through a pulley attached to the ceiling. He lay down on a cot, placed his head in the noose, and pulled tightly on the other end of the rope. The knot tightened, his face turned purple, his vision blurred, and he heard a hissing sound. It took only six seconds for his consciousness to begin to fade, forcing him to stop.