5 72 
PITHING. 
liquid to wash them down. Let a man try to make a hearty 
meal on oatmeal-cake or biscuit without any drink, and he 
will soon find himself nearly choked. 
<f I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
Times, May 3 1 . “C. C. S.” 
PITHING. 
The question of how to inflict the swiftest and least pain- 
ful death upon animals which are required for food has often 
been debated, but without the establishment of the requisite 
unanimity of opinion which must precede the adoption of a 
universal method of slaughter. At the last meeting of the 
Smithfield Club a letter was read from the President offering 
a prize for the best instrument for slaughtering animals by 
dividing the sjpinal vertebrae, by which we presume is meant 
the spinal cord — the process, in fact, of “ pithing. 5 ’ There 
is no doubt that the suggestion is well intended ; but we 
distinctly state our belief that the idea of pithing an animal 
doomed to slaughter is anything but a humane one. Some 
harrowing discussions have been carried on lately in the daily 
press respecting the probable amount of consciousness which 
is possessed by a head after its sudden removal from the body 
by means of the guillotine ; but, whatever may be the objec- 
tions on this ground to swift decapitation as a mode of 
destroying life, they are multiplied indefinitely against the 
process of pithing, or dividing the spinal cord, which is a 
very incomplete form of decapitation, leaving the sensorium 
uninjured. To use a common expression, the head is left 
alive while the whole of the body below the point of division 
becomes an inert mass, although the heart continues 
to contract for some time, and the brain is supplied with 
its natural amount of blood. In fact, the animal loses 
sensation in all parts below the head, leaving the brain intact, 
and fully capable of carrying on its functions as long as it is 
supplied with blood. In decapitation, on the other hand, 
the brain is not only deprived of the usual supply, but is at 
once drained of the amount of vital fluid normally contained 
in its vessels, the immediate effect of which is syncope, with 
its attendant complete and universal loss of sensation. In 
many respects the present modes of slaughtering all sorts of 
animals are unnecessarily painful ; but the plan of pithing, 
however skilfully done, and however ingeniously constructed 
the instruments may be for the purpose, is not an improve- 
ment upon any of the methods at present in use . — The Field. 
