stantly ceased, the eyes became fixed, and the animals
“ appeared to be perfectly devoid of sensibility. In oxen
“ that are knocked down the blood flows with great rapidity,
* and in a few seconds is totally discharged; the reverse of
“ which appears to be the case in pithing, owing, perhaps,
“ to the convulsive contraction of the whole muscular sys-
“ tem.” After some other experiments of driving an iron
punch into the brain, the reporter observes, “ that the general
“ mode of slaughtering cattle, for any, thing that has yet
“ appeared to the contrary, is decidedly the most expe-
“ ditious and the most merciful of any that is known or
“ practised.”
As, however, the practice of pithing has very generally been
supposed to be employed both in this and other countries, so
as to be less painful to the animal and less injurious in its consequences,
the Lords of the Admiralty conceiving that the experiment
made at Deptford might have failed from some mismanagement
in the mode of operation, thought proper to direct
that, after obtaining the best information on the subject, the
experiment should be repeated. Accordingly the Chairman
of the Victualling Office with two Commissioners, and the
first Commmissioner of the Sick and Wounded Department,
proceeded to the premises of Mr. Mellish, and there witnessed
the killing of four oxen : two of them after the ordinary mode
o f knocking down with a pole-axe; and the other two after
the new method of pithing, by the means of an iron instrument
thrust into the spinal marrow at the nape of the neck. These
gentlemen report “ that the different operations of pithing
“ and knocking down appeared to be dextrously performed;
“ and that in both instances the throats of the oxen were
“ instantly cut, to the end that the blood' might be properly
“ discharged. The oxen which were pithed fell upon their
“ knees the moment the knife was thrust into them, but
“ from their violent struggles and convulsive contortions they
“ seemed to experience excruciating torture: their eyes re-
“ mained in an animated and susceptible state ; their breath-
“ ing was retained; and they continued apparently in great
agony for upwards of ten minutes before they expired:
“ whereas the oxen which were slaughtered in the ordinary
“ practice of knocking down fell at thefirst stroke of the axe
“ upon their foreheads; and the moment they were down,
“ they were struck two or three more blows on the same part
“ of the head with the same instrument, when their eyes
“ immediately became- fixed, they appeared insensible of
? further pain, and in the space of three minutes from the
‘‘ time of their being first struck all animation was com-
“ pletely extinct. So far, therefore, as this experiment ex-
“ tended it appeared evident that the common method of
knocking down was preferable to the-new mode of pithing,
“ not only as it was more merciful to the animal, but because
“ the blood flowed more freely from the throats of the oxen,
“ and the flesh was thereby rendered in a better state.”
The above experiments so ably conducted, and reported
without prejudice or partiality, must set the question for ever
at rest; and it is to be hoped, therefore, that while Britons
have firmness of nerve to face an ox, and strength of muscle
3 x 2