BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 41 
The slaughtering of animals for food at the present day may be 
classified under three methods: 1. Rendering the animals insensible 
by a blow on the head, followed by bleeding; 2. Cutting through 
or injuring the spinal cord (pithing), so as to destroy the powers 
of motion and sensation, with subsequent bleeding; 3. Cutting the 
throat, deeply dividing all the blood-vessels, with or without thrust- 
ing the knife into the heart, and without previously stunning the 
animal. This last method is practised by the Jews in slaying cattle. 
From certain experiments conducted for the purpose a few years 
since in the abattoirs of Paris, it would seem that the first of these 
methods, namely, that of producing insensibility by some sudden 
shock to the brain, such as that of a direct and concentrated blow, 
especially if followed by immediate blood-letting, is attended by less 
suffering than when death is effected by decapitation, pithing, or 
cutting the throat without previously producing such insensibility. 
A German observer * remarks upon this subject : ‘All methods of 
slaughtering have for their object the death of the animal in a more 
or less speedy, but always in the least painful manner possible. But 
what is death? and when does actual death occur? Simple as these 
two questions may appear, they are nevertheless very difficult to 
answer. A mammal whose head has been cut off by a guillotine does 
not die immediately. Actual death occurs some seconds or minutes 
afterwards. All methods of slaughtering other than the one in which 
insensibility is produced by a severe shock to the brain, followed by 
bleeding, produce, without exception, only apparent death, after which 
follows the actual death, the latter being always accompanied with 
an entire cessation of neryous and muscular excitability.” 
There are two kinds of motion. The one is voluntary and depend- 
ent upon the brain. So long as this organ remains unimpaired, so 
long will consciousness, sensation, and the power of voluntary motion 
continue. The other is involuntary, and dependent upon the action 
of the spinal cord as a nervous centre, and is known as reflex action. 
This kind of motion is exhibited in the movements of animals after. 
decapitation, where all connection with the brain, and consequently 
with consciousness, has been cut off. 
So intimately connected in our minds are pain aad action, that in 
witnessing the slaughter of two animals we are naturally inclined to 
* Dr. Sondermann, of Munich. Our Dumb Animals, Vol. I. 
VOL. I. 6 
