7(> On Pithing Cattle. 



about twenty-five in a minute, the pulse beating a hundred 

 and twenty. As I was not wilHng to trust the cxpcnnicnt 

 to the possibihty of having divided only one of the phrenics 

 (which I aitenvards found was really the case), and some 

 ■different nerve instead of the other, after carefully attending 

 to the present symptoms I divided all the nerves of the 

 axillarv of each side. The ribs were now more elevated in 

 respiration than before ; respirations were mcreascd to forty 

 in a minute, the pulse stll! beating a hundred and twenty 

 in the same time. Finding that respiration went on very 

 casilv without the diaphragm, in about a quarter of an hour 

 sifter dividina: the axillary plexus of each side 1 divided the 

 spinal manow as in Experiment VI. The whole animal 

 took the alarm ; all the flexor muscles of the body seemed 

 to contract, and instantlv to relax again ; he died as sud- 

 denly as if the spinal marrow had been divided in the upper 

 part of the neck. 



" Having; explained the causes of failure in the present 

 jnode of pithing animals, it becomes necessary to slate, that 

 when the operation is properly periormcd, its success \i 

 ■complete. Of this I will mention the following instances : 



" A small horse was killed in this manner, that a ca,>t 

 mi^^ht be made of its nniscles in their natural state of action. 

 The animal was allowed to stand upon a pedestal, and the 

 opeiation was |x;rformed by Mr. Hunter, with a large awl: 

 the breathing ceased instantaneously, and the animal wnf, 

 so completelv <lcad as to be supported by the assistants, 

 without making the slightest struggle, and was fixed in 

 the position in which he stood, without ever coming to the 

 ground*. 



*' A <\o<y was killed so instantaneously in the same way, 

 bv Mr. Hunter, that Mr. Clift, the conservator of the 

 iiimtcrian Museum, who held the legs, and did not sec the 

 awl introduced, was waiting till the animal should struggle, 

 and had no knowledge of any thing having hcx^n done, till 

 he was told to let go, and was surprised to lind that the 

 animail was completely dead. 



" In these operations the instrument was small, and ^li- 

 rected by the skill of an anatomist upwards into the cavity 

 of the skull, so as to divide the medullary substance above 

 the oricin of the nerves which supply the diaphragm. 



" Bv adopting this method of performing the operation 

 of pithing cattle, it will be attended with the same success.'' 



• The cast of this horse has a place in the Huntciian MusLum 



