GUILLOTINE', the name given to the instrument of capital punishment used in France ; so called from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, by whom it was intro duced into that country. This person was born at Saintes, and, established as a physician at Paris, obtained a certain celebrity in the early period of the Rev olution by the strong part which he took in favor of the rights of the Tiers-Etat. He was elected in consequence a deputy to the National Assembly. When that body was occupied in its long discussions relative to the reform of the penal code (in 1790) Guillotin proposed the adoption of decapitation—up to that time used only fur nobles—as the only method of capital punishment. From sentiments of humanity he recommended the em ployment of a machine which had beer. long known in Italy under the name of " mannaja," and in other countries also; for something much resembling it had been used in Scotland and in England within the jurisdiction of the borough of Halifax.
The Assembly applauded the idea, and the machine was adopted, to which the Parisians have given the name of "Guil lotine," of which Guillotin is most erro neously- supposed to have been the inven tor. It consists of two upright pieces or wood fixed in a horizontal frame ; a sharp blade of steel moves up and down by means of a pulley in grooves in the two uprights ; the edge is oblique instead of horizontal in shape, which gives it the mechanical power of the wedge. The criminal is laid on his face, his neck im mediately under the blade, which severs it at a blow from his body. It is equally a vulgar error that Guillotin perished by the instrument which bears his name. Ile was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, but released at the revolution wf July, 1;94 ; and died in 1814, after founding the association termed the Acad emy of Medicine.