_The Guillotine_ was not a French invention, as generally supposed, but was imported from Italy, where a similar instrument, known as the _Mannaya_, had been used for centuries before it was used either in France or England.[70] It had been used in England long before it was used in France and was known as the _Halifax Maiden_, because of the special charter, giving this town a right to use it for petty larceny of any article exceeding thirteen halfpenny.[71] It was used in France in the sixteenth century and at Toulouse, in 1632, it was the engine which accomplished the execution of the Duc de Montmorency.[72] Doctor Joseph Guillotin brought the same engine of death before the National Assembly, in December, 1789 and he is generally recognized as the inventor of this terrible machine, which was used to decapitate so many of the nobility during the terrible French Revolution,[73] but a similar instrument had executed thousands in Italy centuries before it was known or used in France.[74] _The Massola_ was used in Italy, at an early date, along with the _Mannaya_ or guillotine, as it was afterwards called, in France, and by use of the former machine, the criminal was stunned with a blow from a mace, much as the butcher slaughters the ox or hog by striking him on the head and then while stunned, his throat was pierced with a long knife and his chest was ripped open.[75] But let us turn from the contemplation of other instruments used to accomplish the death of the criminals of the middle ages, and examine some of the milder forms of punishments in vogue. These were only some of the most prominent methods of inflicting capital punishment upon alleged criminals, among the old Israelites, Persians, Greeks and Romans, and other lesser punishments, such as mutilation consisting in blinding,[76] cutting off the hands or ears,[77] branding,[78] plucking off the hair,[79] flaying,[80] scourging with thorns,[81] the stocks, stripes,[82] the wheel, the rack, the comb with sharp teeth, the burning tile, the low vault in which the culprit was bent double, the heavy hog-skin whip, and the injection of vinegar into the nostrils, were a few of the lesser punishments inflicted by these and other peoples for many long and tortuous years, upon all classes of criminals and accused persons.[83]. _Blinding_, under the Mosaic dispensation, was claimed to have been authorized under the law of retaliation, “an eye for an eye,”[84] etc., but it was seldom used among the patriarchs in old Israel. The Assyrians and Babylonians used this means of torturing the criminals convicted of rebellion or revolt, in order to prevent them from doing further harm and to furnish an example to others of the enormity of the punishment for such an offense against the government.[85] We read in the book of Esther that such criminals were not permitted to look upon the king,[86] and in Persia this method of punishment was inflicted for rascality, thieving and rebellion.[87]