354 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



meat, as far as I can observe, is never blown ; and that the car 

 cass is not, as with us, slit down by the back-bone, and so 

 divided into four quarters ; but a piece nearly square is cut from 

 the loins, termed here a saddle of mutton, which is esteemed a 

 more choice part for roasting than the leg, and is always a 

 favorite dish upon an elegant table. The butchers, or cooks, 

 have likewise a habit, not certainly general with us, but much 

 to be commended that of separating the joints before the meat is 

 cooked, which greatly alleviates the difficulty of carving. 



The mode of slaughtering cattle differs from that of slaughter 

 ing sheep. Some gentlemen, a few years ago, interested them 

 selves much on this subject, on the sole ground of humanity, and 

 experiments were made of killing the animal, by driving a sharp 

 instrument directly into the spinal cord, back of the horns ; but, 

 although the animal fell instantly, yet the convulsions continued 

 much longer than when he was killed by being stunned, by the 

 former method, and it was reasonably inferred that the suffer 

 ing, therefore, was much greater. This is said to be the mode 

 adopted in the great slaughtering establishments in the neighbor 

 hood of Paris, &quot; where a sharp-pointed chisel is driven, with a 

 smart stroke, between the second and third vertebrse of the spine ; 

 insensibility immediately ensues, and the blood is let out by 

 opening the blood-vessels of the neck.&quot; Besides the objection 

 made above to this mode of slaughtering, it is said the animal 

 does not bleed so freely and entirely as when stunned on the 

 forehead, as by the former method. The present mode of killing 

 is by bringing, by means of a ring on the floor and a rope passed 

 round the foot of the horns, the ox s head to the ground ; and 

 he is then struck on the forehead, not, as with us, by an axe with 

 a flat head, but with a similar instrument, with a pointed end, 

 two or three inches long, of the size of the small finger, this 

 point being hollow, and with sharp edges, and this is driven 

 directly into the upper forehead. The animal falls at once : this 

 point is immediately extracted, and a wooden pin, of about the same 

 diameter, is driven into the wound, and forced into the brain or 

 spinal marrow, and the animal dies at once. I am not certain, 

 that this is an improvement upon the mode of killing which pre 

 vails with us ; though the killing of an ox, with us, requires great 

 adroitness and great strength ; otherwise, the blows require to be 

 repeated, and much suffering is inflicted, which, it would seem, 



