THE HOG. 231 



sulphur, for cutaneous affections. Turpentine, it may be observed, is 

 useful in cases of worms ; it may be given in doses of about half an 

 ounce or more, in ijruel. 



SLAUGHTERING AND CURING.— The Almighty Creator, when he had 

 formed man, and placed him upon the earth, gave him power of life and 

 death over all the inferior animals. This power was, however, given to 

 him to be used, not to be abused; while permitted to slay for food, 

 clothing, or other necessaries — nay, luxuries of life — it was never de- 

 signed by our all-benevolent as well as omnipotent Lord that this power 

 should be converted into a medium of cruelty, or that life should be 

 taken away from any of his creatures in any other than the most hu- 

 mane manner possible. The necessity of humanity toward animals thus 

 stands as not only a high moral duty, but one absolutely enjoined as a 

 divine ordinance ; it is also a part and parcel of all that is noble or ex- 

 cellent in human nature. 



It is a mistake to suppose that this poor animal is insensible to pain. 

 The poor hog does indeed feel, and that most acutely ; well would it 

 be for him that he did not, for then what miseries would he not be 

 spared ! — he would not then care whether he was put out of pain at (^ce, 

 or suffered to hang up by the hind-legs, the limbs previously dislocated 

 at the hocks, between the tendons and the bone of which has been 

 passed the hook by which he is suspended. Were he indeed insensible 

 to pain, it would of course be a matter of indifference whether or not 

 he were suffered to die first, or — as soon as he had bled a sufHcient 

 quantity — was, still living and breathing, plunged into boiling water, in 

 order to remove his hair; or then, with a refinement of cruelty that 

 would not even permit of his being put out of his misery so soon, re- 

 moved from the cauldron, ere life or feeling had yet departed, opened, 

 and disemboweled alive. 



We should be sorry to give pain to the feelings of any of our readers, 

 but we had rather hurt their feelings than leave a suffering, a tortured 

 quadruped, and that, too, one so useful to us, to experience such an un- 

 grateful return, in the shape of such terribly revolting miseries. We 

 have described only what we have personally witnessed, and we trust 

 that what we have said may lead master-butchers and others to ascer- 

 tain the conduct of their slaughterers, and the manner in which they 

 perform their necessary but painful duty. 



The usual mode of killing a hog in the country parts of England is, 

 or used lately to be, by fastening a rope around the upper jaw, and 

 throwing it across a joist or beam; this is hauled by an assistant just 

 sufficiently tight to compel the animal to support himself upon the 

 •extremities of his toes, with his snout elevated in the air. The butcher 

 then kneels in front of him, and taking a sharp and pointed knife, first 

 shaves away the hair from a small portion of the front of the throat, 

 then gently passing the sharp-pointed steel through the superficial fat, 

 gives it a plunge forward, a turn, and withdraws his weapon. A gush 

 of blood follows, which is usually caught in proper vessels, for the pur- 

 pose of forming black puddings. The rope is somewhat slackened — • 

 the victim totters, reels, the eye glazes — his screams cease — befalls, and 

 life would speedily become extinct ; but, alas ! the butcher is paid by 



