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Credit
Left, a man suffers the "torture of water"; left, a man tied to a rack has his armpits and the soles of his feet scorched by candles. Etching. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
A bald man kneels down in the foreground about to be beheaded with a sword
The "torture of water" is often applied together with the rack. It was generally adopted when racking, in itself, proved ineffectual. The victim, while pinioned on the rack, was compelled to swallow water, which was dropped slowly on a piece of silk or fine linen placed in his mouth. This material, under pressure of the water, gradually glided down the throat, producing the sensation experienced by a person who is drowning. A variation of the water torture was to cover the face with a piece of thin linen, upon which the water was poured slowly, running into the mouth and nostrils and hindering or preventing breathing alomost to the point of suffocation
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