434 A JOURNEY IN 
" stantly ceased, the eyes became fixed, and the animals 
appeared to be perfectly devoid of sensibihty. In oxen 
" that are knocked down the blood flows with great rapidit}'', 
" 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- 
" tern/' 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 con- 
sequences, the Lords of the Admiralty conceiving that the ex- 
periment made at Deptford might have failed from some mis- 
management 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 Ofiice with two Commissioners, and the 
first Commmissioner of the Sick and Wounded Department, 
proceeded to the premises of Mr. Mellish, and there witnessed 
the kilhng of four oxen : two of them after the ordinary mode 
of knocking down with a pole-axe ; and the other two after 
the new method 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 
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