3 59 
respecting the Water it contains , &c. 
a little salt it was induced to drink, at two different times in 
the course of two hours three gallons of water : not having 
taken any the three preceding days, or shewn the least dispo- 
sition to do so. Three hours after this, its head was fixed to a 
beam, so as to prevent the body from falling to the ground, 
after it was dead, and in this situation it was pithed by Mr. 
Cline, junior, assisted by Mr. Brodie and Mr. Clift. This 
operation was performed with a narrow double-edged 
poniard passed in between the skull and first vertebra of the 
neck; in this way the medulla oblongata was divided, and 
the animal instantaneously deprived of sensibility. In the 
common mode of pithing cattle the medulla spinalis only is 
cut through, and the head remains alive, which renders it the 
most cruel mode of killing animals that could be invented.* 
The animal was kept suspended, that the viscera might 
remain in their natural state, and in two hours the cavities of 
the chest, and abdomen were laid open, in the presence of all 
the Members of the Committee, and Mr. Chandler, a Mem- 
ber of the Board of Curators. 
The first stomach was the only part of the contents of the 
abdomen, which appeared in view. The smooth portion of 
the paunch was on the left side, and on the right towards the 
chest was a cellular structure, in which it was evident to the 
feel there was air, but no part of the solid food, with which 
the general cavity was distended. On the lower posterior 
part towards the pelvis there was another portion made up 
of cells, larger and more extensive than that, which was 
• See Dr. Dug ard’s experiments, published in the Board of Agriculture’s Report 
for Shropshire, by Joseph Plum ley, M. A. p. 246. 
3 A 
MDCCCVI. 
