HINTS ON EAR MARKING OF CATTLE. 
725 
A FEW HINTS ON EAR MARKING OF CATTLE. 
To the Editor of ce The Live Stock Journal .'’ 
Sir,—W ill you allow me, through the medium of the 
Journal , to call the attention of agriculturists to a simple pro¬ 
cess of ear marking to which even the Royal Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals could take no exception ? 
First, let me say that the ear is the most available and desir¬ 
able place for a mark. Of course, the epidermic tissues (the 
hair, hoof, and horns) are too frail to receive permanent marks. 
The hair, as every one knows, is constantly being shed and 
rubbed off; the hoofs grow too fast when out at pasture for 
marks to be read any length of time, let alone the difficulty 
or impossibility of seeing marks on the hoofs of cattle at a 
distance, rendering them quite unavailable in a herd at grass; 
and horns must be there before they are marked. 
Herdsmen, therefore, have been driven to the ear as the 
most conspicious and least sensitive structure. To what ex¬ 
tent it is cruel to mark the ear by piercing it ? That part of 
the ear vulgarly termed the ear, but which is the sound- 
catcher, and technically termed the pinna or auricle , is made 
up of an almost insensible base, called cartilage, with skin 
upon it, like a glove on a finger. This cartilage when in 
health, as it is when the marker's knife attacks it, is, I repeat 
almost without any feeling whatever. It follows, therefore, 
that the “ cruelty '' consists in piercing or cutting two thick¬ 
nesses of skin. 
The cruelty of ear marking, as at present conducted, I do 
not admit. The momentary pain is as nothing in comparison 
to the severe smart inflicted on my lady's carriage-horse with 
a foot of whipcord, as she drives to attend the annual meet¬ 
ing of the Royal Anti-cruelty Society. If, however, the 
wound remains open, especially in fly time, there will be a 
ten days' annoyance to the animal; and, looking at it in the 
light of utility, there is by it so much flesh lost. 
As one used to surgical proceedings, I beg to offer the fol¬ 
lowing advice to all whom it may concern :—First, it is well 
known that organic substances, such as silk-thread, catgut, 
string of all descriptions, absorb the serum and other moisture 
from the wound, and this putrefies, and becomes irritating 
to any raw surface to which it is applied; and so long as this 
irritation lasts, there is either inflammation, or something as 
bed. On the other hand, metallic substances, such as lead 
and silver wire, are tolerated by the tissues, and healing goes 
on around them, the healed surfaces surrounding the silver 
