The Jewish Method of Slaughter - Compared With Other Methods, From the Humanitarian, Hygienic, and Economic Points of View #270752

AT first sight it would seem to be easy enough to decide which method of slaughter should be preferred, but in my opinion it is not at all so trifling a task. It is not every one who is qualified to decide as to the superiority of one or the other method, though, unfortunately, it has lately become quite a customary thing to do so. For this purpose there is, first of all, required a thorough knowledge of veterinary science and physiology; and, secondly, a wide acquaintance with the facts of surgery and medicine, coupled with a practical experience that is to be gained only within the walls of the slaughter-house. Thus it happens even with eminent physiologists, notwithstanding their thorough acquaintance with the matter, that, though generally agreed as to the main facts of the Jewish method, and the great part which the Circulation of the blood plays in it, they nevertheless commit themselves now and then to false opinions they could certainly have avoided by a careful and practical research in the slaughter-house. As to the veterinary surgeons and the Chief managers of slaughter-houses, I must say that, on the one hand, their time is too much taken up with the performance of their duties to allow them to spend several hours in watching carefully all the symptoms which follow a certain method of killing; while, on the other hand, many of them have not a Sufficient knowledge of physiology, surgery, &c., to guide them to a right interpretation of the pheno mena seen. AS an excuse for the veterinary Surgeon, it must of course be remembered that neither physiology nor veterinary pathology is, properly speaking, concerned with the question of slaughtering.