Everyone’s probably familiar with French Revolution stories involving the decapitated heads of guillotined prisoners appearing to remain conscious for, in some stories, up to 30 seconds after death. Usually, in these stories, they attempt to speak or stare uncomprehendingly at the spectators. Marie Antioinette supposedly mouthed a prayer for a couple of seconds while her head was being held aloft. Whether humans remain conscious after decapitation would seem to be pretty hard to confirm for fairly obvious reasons. But one victim of The Terror, whose name escapes me, was apparently so interested in the subject that he arranged an experiment with several colleagues who would be present at his execution. After he was guillotined, so he told them, he would blink his eyes for as long as possible until death. Following his decapitation, witnesses reported seeing him blink 15 times.
Truth, urban legend, or somewhere in-between?