SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS. 
THE PHILADELPHIA NEUROLOGICAL 
SOCIETY. 
Stated Meeting, December s8, 1885. 
The President, S. Weir Mitchell, M.D., 
in the Chair. 
Dr. Guy Hinsdale presented a communication on 
THE METHODS OF SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS AT THE 
PHILADELPHIA ABATTOIR. 
There has recently been put in my hands a series of 
written questions which relate to the methods of slaugh- 
tering animals in our Philadelphia Abattoir. The sub- 
ject has been brought before the Society for the Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Animals, and the officers of the 
Society desire to obtain from some of our Philadelphia 
physicians an expression of opinion as to the proper 
method of killing cattle with the minimum of pain. 
As the members of this Society.are doubtless aware, 
enormous numbers of cattle, sheep, and pigs are 
slaughtered at the abattoir in West Philadelphia. Into 
the main hall of the building, which is spacious, having 
a high roof, with good light and ventilation, the cattle 
are led in large numbers. They are apportioned to February 13, 1886.] 
PHILADELPHIA NEUROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
187 
about fifteen different pens or iron cages arranged in a 
straight line, each capable of receiving seven or eight 
bullocks. The iron bars of which the cages are made are 
separated about fifteen inches from each other, afford- 
ing a comparatively unobstructed view of the remainder 
of the room. The gate of exit from a pen is oppo- 
site the gate of entrance; above it is the windlass 
for hoisting. The animal is, in most instances, struck 
down while standing among his fellows, by a butcher 
who stands on a plank above him armed with a heavy, 
long-handled sledge-hammer. He is then hoisted by 
the windlass through the open door, is disembowelled 
and dressed for the market within six feet of the 
animals remaining in the cage, When the carcass is 
ready for market one of the butchers climbs above the 
cage, and with the hammer strikes down two more 
animals ; they are dragged out, and so on until all the 
animals are disposed of. 
The Jewish butchers for ages have killed by bleeding. 
They never use a hammer, but after hoisting the animal 
by a hind leg, the throat is always cut by a rabbi or 
" shockem," armed with a keen sabre. This rabbi is 
detailed for duty at the abattoir. 
Underneath the main hall is a cellar in which sheep 
and pigs are slaughtered by the knife. It is a dark, 
unclean, repulsive place. Large quantities of accumu- 
lated gore are seen in the places where the animals are 
usually killed. The surface drainage is very bad ; the 
upper floor, though deluged with blood, is attractive In 
comparison. 
The questions to which answers are desired by the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are 
these: 
1. Does the Israelitish method produce a total loss of 
sensation ? 
2. Does a total loss of sensation arise from a blow 
struck upon the head of the animal with sufficient force 
to knock him down ? 
3. What is the most humane way of slaughtering 
cattle, which would produce instantaneous death ? 
4. Do you think a bullock is so sensitive as to suffer 
terror or agony in witnessing the deathblows and suf- 
ferings of his companions? 
With a view to satisfy myself on these points, I made 
three visits to the Abattoir. I had no especial interest 
in the subject before, and supposed that the methods 
were not open to criticism. 
As for the first question, I think it safe to say that the 
Israelitish method is instantaneous when once the steel 
strikes the neck. The blood gushes out, the brain is 
instantly deprived of blood, and consciousness is lost 
without appreciable loss of time. The young rabbi 
deserves credit for the skill with which he performs 
this operation. To suspend animals with heels up and 
head down is, at first sight, somewhat harsh, but, on 
the other hand, they are accustomed to a low position 
of the head, and the new position is only ninety degrees 
removed from the normal. 
Regarding the second question, it appeared to me 
that consciousness did not always cease when a blow 
was struck upon the head of an animal with sufficient 
force to knock him down. 
The first two animals that I saw killed were struck 
on the head, in the middle line a little anterior to the 
line of the insertion of the horns. They instantly 
dropped ; a few convulsive movements, sometimes uni- 
lateral, sometimes general, occurred, and they were 
removed from the cage. The next three animals were 
struck by a different man. Two animals were struck 
eight times apiece, and the others nine times before 
the butchers saw fit to proceed to dress the beef. Al- 
though the earlier blows were ineffectual, the later ones 
were delivered when the animals had lost sensation, 
and when the convulsive movements appeared too 
violent. In other instances one, two, three, or four 
blows were required. Animals were partially struck 
down, and did raise their heads, and look about, un- 
questionably conscious of pain. The ox is not by any 
means the only animal that may preserve conscious- 
ness after being struck, down by a blow upon the head. 
We ourselves may know this from personal experience. 
However, one blow well applied was sufficient per- 
haps, in the'majority of instances, instantly to destroy 
sensation. 
Two other cattle which I saw killed at my third visit 
were attacked by a third man. The first received three 
blows upon the head, but still the animal walked about, 
and it became so difficult to induce him to stay still in 
proper position (the unreasonable creature!) that the 
butcher resolved to devote his attention to another ani- 
mal, upon which, also, he delivered three heavy but 
ineffectual blows. I noticed by this time that the first 
animal was bleeding from the nose, and that both were 
able to walk about. This heavy hammer would some- 
times bound from the skull as you might expect a wooden 
mallet to do. The animals gave no cry, and made no 
violent demonstration, as one might expect; they re- 
ceived these murderous blows as a prize-fighter might 
receive his, without evincing pain. They, however, be- 
came uneasy, endeavored to avoid the man crouching 
above them, and, without much trouble, were finally 
dispatched. 
As to whether a bullock is so sensitive as to suffer 
terror or agony, in witnessing the deathblows and 
sufferings of his companions, interesting metaphysical 
questions are involved. Butchers in the abattoir do 
not seem to think that the animals are conscious of 
their surroundings. They say they occasionally milk 
a cow in a cage near which animals are being slaugh- 
tered. It is quite evident that, as a rule, bullocks make 
no attempts, or the most ineffectual attempts, to avoid 
the fate of their companions. In one instance which 
came under my observation, the last of a series of bul- 
locks became frightened; he dodged the blows, put his 
head through the bars, and held it low, out of the reach 
of the butcher standing on the top of the cage. Men 
with sticks poked him about, while inaccurate blows 
fell upon his head, until, after a disgusting struggle, he 
was dispatched. This animal seemed to me to act at 
the start as though he appreciated danger from witness- 
ing the death of his companions. Butchers say that 
Texan steers give more trouble than others, and are 
more liable to grow wild at the sight and smell of blood. 
It cannot be that their mental powers are radically 
different from those of other varieties of oxen. 
It is not necessary to repeat before this Society anec- 
dotes or proofs to show that a steer may become frantic 
at the sight and smell of blood. Carnivorous animals 
are not so susceptible. A dog may even eat another 
dog, as one of our proverbs says, and yet some dogs 188 
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA. 
[Medical News 
appointed to visit the abattoir, and report to the Society 
on the questions proposed by the Society for the Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Animals. 
The committee appointed consisted of Drs. H. C. 
Wo'od, H. A. Hare, F. X. Dercum, A. P. Brubaker, and 
Guy Hinsdale. 
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA. 
Stated Meeting, February 3, 1886. . 
The President, S. Weir Mitchell, M.D., 
in the Chair. 
Dr. Horatio C. Wood, on behalf of a Committee 
of the Philadelphia Neurological Society, made the fol- 
lowing statement concerning the 
PAINLESS SLAUGHTERING OF ANIMALS. 
Some weeks ago, the attention of the Neurological 
Society of Philadelphia was called to the subject of the 
Philadelphia Abattoir, and the mode there employed 
of slaughtering cattle and sheep, by a paper by Dr. Guy 
Hinsdale. The subject was referred to a Committee, of 
which I had the honor to be the Chairman, for investi- 
gation, and, upon the making of our report, the Society 
directed me, as Chairman of the Committee, to bring the 
matter before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 
as the highest representative body of the profession in 
this city. 
As is well known, there are yearly killed in the abat- 
toir in West Philadelphia, owned by the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, many thousands of cattle, sheep, and hogs. 
The method of slaughtering the sheep and hogs is 
simply to cut their throats, and to allow them to bleed 
to death. If this be done skilfully with a single sweep 
of the knife, the death is rapid, but far from instan- 
taneous, and consciousness is preserved until the blood 
is nearly exhausted from the body, the supply of the 
vital fluid through the vertebral arteries being sufficient 
to maintain temporarily a certain amount of brain func- 
tion. In the case of sheep, pithing is a very simple 
operation, and any butcher, after a little practice, could 
do it with rapidity and ease. The amount of expended 
time which it would add to the present method is ex- 
ceedingly small, and we can see .no reason, except the 
callousness of custom, for objecting to its introduction. 
In the small slaughter houses of the olden time, a rope 
was thrown around the horns of the cattle, and the ani- 
mal was violently dragged down to a ring in the floor, 
and then dispatched with a blow in the forehead. I 
understand that in the Paris abattoirs this method is 
modified so far that the bullock is driven into a nar- 
row gangway or pen, a rope thrown round the horns 
and rapidly hoisted so as to raise the forefeet of the 
creature from the floor, when the fatal blow is given. 
In some of the great abattoirs of the West the animal 
is shot, and, of course, if the bullet be accurately di- 
rected, the victim dies instantaneously. In other places 
pithing is practised, and, if skilfully performed, produces 
immediate death. 
The objection to shooting is the danger of the bullet 
either simply wounding the animal or occasionally, when 
discharged through carelessness or accident, passing 
wide of its mark. It is said that serious accidents have 
thus occurred in the Chicago abattoirs. Pithing is un- 
are capable of sympathy, and exemplify it by appro- 
priate behavior. Not only the elephant, but even so 
small a creature as the ant, manifests sympathy.1 The 
sense and the understanding are not the prerogatives 
of man exclusively. These lower animals have atten- 
tion, memory, association. They exhibit generosity, 
gratitude, courage, caution, patience, industry, anger, 
and grief. 
Doubtless the ox or the sheep or the pig cannot claim 
the possession of all these qualities. But their mental 
system is much less perfectly understood than ours. 
"The popular tendency has been to underrate the ac- 
quired knowledge of animals, if not to ignore it alto- 
gether. At present we are not in a condition to dogma- 
tize, owing to the want of proper observations on the 
whole department of brute intelligence."2 As Lauder 
Lindsay puts, it, "the very terms animality and hu- 
manity are, on the one hand, unnecessary distinctions; ! 
while, on the other, they are generally wrongly applied, 
for there is more animality in man and humanity in 
animals than our self conceit will permit us willingly to 
recognize. We cannot correctly speak of the animal 
in contradistinction to the human mind, inasmuch as 
mind is essentially the same in other animals as in man, 
differing simply in the degree of its development and 
the mode of its expression."3 
But what can be done to remove the objectionable 
features of this necessary work of slaughter? 
1. The work of killing these animals should be given 
only to a man of experience and power. 
2. It is not necessary, and it should not be permitted, 
that animals should witness the death of their fellows. 
They may wait their turn together, but finally should 
be led to an apartment alone, where a single successful 
death-blow may be given. 
3. Means should be provided for making this blow 
unerring. A crushing blow on the brain-case is, un- 
doubtedly, a painless death, and, by a mechanical con- 
trivance, this might be made unfailing. Fixation of the 
head would be necessary, and perhaps could be accom- 
plished by means of the horns. An experienced exe- 
cutioner, with an adequate instrument, either in his own 
hands or under his control, as a trip hammer is under 
the control of a forger, could then dispatch these poor 
brutes with the minimum of pain. 
4. The number of men who perform this work should 
be small; and boys, women, and the public generally, 
should not be permitted to witness these brutalizing 
scenes. 
5. The Jewish method, when rapidly performed, is, 
on the whole, not a cruel method. 
6. The city should take immediate steps to supervise 
this abattoir; it should have an official inspector of 
meat, and adopt some effectual, scientific method for 
the detection and condemnation of diseased meat. 
If this Society will endorse these statements, I believe 
that a better state of things can be secured. If proper 
evidence can be adduced, the Society for the Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals will take hold of the matter 
and insist on reform in this important public institution. 
Dr. Charles K. Mills moved that a committee be 
1 Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 47. 
2 Art. Instinct, Chambers's Encyclop. 
8 Journal of Mental Science, April, 1871. February A3, 1886.] 
NEW YORK SURGICAL SOCIETY. 
189 
doubtedly the best method of killing, provided the re- 
quisite skill is present, but its proper performance requires 
a much greater degree of skill than would probably be 
commanded in our city abattoirs. If the blow upon the 
forehead be given with a sufficiently heavy instrument, 
which is provided with a truncated point one and a half 
inches in diameter, and be well directed, it undoubtedly 
produces an effect which is as immediate and almost ns 
thorough as that of pithing. I believe that under these cir- 
cumstances the medulla itself will be found to be crushed 
or destroyed by the enormous hemorrhage. The idea 
of the plan which is adopted at the Philadelphia Abattoir 
appears to be as good as any that is practical, but the 
method of the carrying out of this plan is exceedingly 
bad. l*he main hall of the abattoir is spacious, well 
lighted and ventilated, and the centre is occupied with 
fifteen pens or iron cages, placed in a straight line on 
each side of an avenue. Each of these cages is capable 
of holding from seven to eight bullocks, and the view 
of the whole floor is practically unobstructed by the 
slight iron bars which separate thechges. Over the top 
of these cages are placed planks. The plan is for the 
bullocks to be driven into the pens, often until the latter 
are completely filled. The person who does the killing 
stands upon the planks above the pen, watches his 
opportunity, and strikes down one after another of the 
cattle beneath him. The hindlegs of the theoretically 
unconscious victims are then attached to a chain, and 
by means of a windlass the body is dragged out of the 
pen and suspended with its head downward. After 
this the throat is cut and the blood caught in buckets 
or tubs. 
The first question which naturally arises is as to the 
amount of psychical suffering that is produced in the 
cattle by the sight of death or the smell of blood. After 
a good deal of observation the Committee of the Neu- 
rological Society came to the unanimous conclusion 
that the cattle had an imperfect consciousness of what 
was going on ; most of them seemed entirely cowed 
and passive, whilst others were exceedingly restless 
and apparently very anxious. The Committee did not 
believe that the suffering would compare with that 
which would exist in human beings under similar cir- 
cumstances, but it seemed to be quite definite and dis- 
tinct. 
As no provision is made for the animals being in the 
proper position for striking, the butcher who uses the 
hammer, selects his opportunity as best he may. More- 
over, the weapon is used by a number of individuals, 
the result being that in a very large proportion, and, 
perhaps, in the majority of cases, a single blow is not 
sufficient. When first struck the animal falls to his 
knees, or, as in many cases, scarcely flinches, only 
striving with more or less eagerness to get away from a 
danger the existence of which he recognizes, but the 
direction of which he does not perceive ; the beast is then 
driven about as best may be until an opportunity is 
afforded for a second blow ; thus the process of torture 
is repeated until finally the animal falls. It is also the 
custom at the Abattoir to strike down three or four 
bullocks at once ; so that some minutes must elapse 
before the cutting of the throats of some of them. 
Under these circumstances the unfortunate creature 
very frequently recovers partial consciousness before his 
turn comes, and not rarely regains sufficient self-posses- 
sion to get upon his feet, when the process of striking- 
down has to be repeated. 
Observation made by various members of the Com- 
mittee, at different private slaughter houses in Phila- 
delphia, shows that there is still greater carelessness 
and recklessness of animal suffering than in the public 
abattoir. 
It is not necessary to enlarge at all upon the con- 
dition of affairs at the Philadelphia Abattoir. Fortu- 
nately the remedy is a very easy one, and it can hardly 
be that the officials of such a great corporation as 
the Pennsylvania Railroad will fail to apply a remedy 
when the evil has been brought to their attention. The 
arrangement of the pens should be remodelled, so that 
the bullock to be killed shall be isolated in a close, 
narrow pen, but especially should the striking be per- 
formed by one man, whose sole duty it should be to 
deliver the fatal blows. With the skill that would come 
with constant repetition, it is probable that it would not 
be necessary to raise up the head of the bullock at all, 
but if this be deemed advisable, over the horns of the 
animal, driven into the narrow pen, a rope could be 
readily thrown, and in an instant the feet raised from 
the ground. 
Before taking leave of this matter, it seems right to 
call the attention of the College of Physicians to the very 
great need there is of some inspection of meat at the 
Philadelphia Abattoir. Of the dozen or fifteen cattle 
which I personally saw killed, the internal organs of one 
were simply studded with tubercular nodules, so that the 
beast must have been in the last stages of general tuber- 
culosis. The meat was dressed and prepared as that of 
the others for sale. It is probable that this diseased 
meat especially finds its way into those forms of saus- 
ages which are largely eaten by a portion of our popu- 
lation in a partially cooked condition. It seems to 
be but right that protection should be afforded to the 
community against the use of diseased meat, and that, 
therefore, there should be an inspector having super- 
vision over both the public and private slaughtering 
places of the city. 
In conclusion, I trust that the subject of this commu- 
nication will be referred to a committee with power to 
bring the matter, through the public press, to the atten- 
tion of the citizens of Philadelphia. 
Upon motion, the Chair was authorized to appoint 
such a committee, to consist of three Fellows, with power. 
The President appointed Drs. H. C. Wood, H. C. 
Chapman, and E. T. Reichert as the committee. 190 
NEW YORK SURGICAL SOCIETY. 
[Medical News