The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-04-12 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER.—There was rather more demand yesterday
for yarn than on the preceding Tuesday; but the slight ad-
vance in cotton at Liverpool on Monday, had no effect upon
prices here ; and the buyers were fully supplied at the cur-
rent rates of last week. In goods, also, there was a little
more,business doing, but without improvement in prices.—
Guardian.

ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, APRIL BTH.
—To-day the appearance of the market has been very dis-
couraging; the demand for flannels being limited, and the
prices very unsteady. The wool market has also been dull,
and (but 'little business done. Prices have undergone no
change since last Monday.—lbid.
HUDDERSFIELD MARKET, APRIL 9.—This was a brisk
market in most description of goods, but prices are under-
stood not to range sufficiently high for the price of the raw
material. The demand for light fancy woollens; especially
for the latter, was as brisk as for some weeks past. The de-
mand for light fancy goods is not so great as wasexpected on
account of the extremely cold weather. Wools do not ad-
vance, but remain firm. An indisposition to buy exists, in
the hope that the next clip will be a little lower. The ware-
houses are generally doing a good business.—lbid.
Ittiviex.—lscsieasa OF TRA DE.—The number of power-
looms used in the wearing of woollens in the different manu-
facturing districts of Scotland, visited by the Factory In-
spectors in 1836, was only 22, now there are in this town
alone at present- about 70 power-looms for the weaving of
woollens ; besides, there is likewise a considerable increase
of hand-looms since the period mentioned. These facts
clearly demonstrate the prosperity of the trade here.—Edin-
burgh Evening Post.

RUSSIAN SOURS.—No peasantry in Europe is so coarsely-
fed as_that of Russia. Their diet consists of the most acril
articles that were ever devised; pickled cucumbers; Piciatlcl'
cabbage, or pickled mushrooms, with a piece of soth' bls
bread, are their daily fare. At rare intervals they may thve
a little fish, or even a little meat ' • but these also,' tlie:Oh'it,
all events, are atrociously acrid. In short, they li4o)diAtilli9'.
Unless their food burn the palate, it does them:4ollodd.
Bremner's Russia.

LITERATURE AND ART.—According to the Si;PtaSfENT
to BENT'S MONTHLY LITERARY ADVERTISER for 1838,
which: contains Alphabetical Lists of the New Books and
Engravings, published in London during last yOar, there ap-
pears an increase of New Publications, the Number of Books
amounting to 1550 (1850 volumes,) exclusive of New Edi,
tions,Pamphlets, or Periodicals, being 1701r/tore than 1837:
The Number of Engravings is 87, (including 35 Portraits)
16 of which are engraved in the Line manner, 41 in Mezzo-
tinto, 14 in Aquatint, and 16 in Chalk, Lithlgraphy, &c.
WRECK--Extract from the log-book of the barque
beth, Captain Orr, from Clyde :—On the 26th January, lat.
43 N., long. 18 W.. at three P.M., saw the masts of a wreck
a-head ; took in all studding sails, and at 4 30 passed her
stern ; there appeared to be several men Under the maintop—
rounded to under her lee, lowered the boat—the captain went
aboard the wreck. She proved to be the brig Anna Maria,
of Whitby, timber-laden, water-logged, foremast gone, and
jib-boom out. On the main cat-harpins, which was sur-
rounded by a piece of an old sail, there was a most awful
sight presented to view—four putrid bodies quite black,
lying huddled together ; one arm, and parts of the body of a
female, which had been cut asunder, and was hanging under
the top ; a bundle of canvas, which appeared to contain the
body of a child much decomposed; this was lying between
the futtock ?shrouds and the' main rigging. Above it there
was a pair of woman's and apair of child's corsets, tied to
the futtock rigging, to screen thorn from the blast. On the
fore part of the top, lay on a piece of canvass the wasted
remaina of an old man, whose last horrid care appeared to be
to secure his portion of the mutilated female body, having
one of the legs lying partly under him, which he had been
rgnawing. A watch pocket was hanging through the cat-
ia rpins , which the captain took. It contained a silver watch,
embossed sideS, and chased back, in the centre of which the
initials W. F. are engraved ; a small brass key attached, by a
bit of black tape. The whole of the unfortunate creatures
appeared to' be but scantily clothed, and from all appearance
may have been dead a considerable time. The night ap-
proaching,
the captain returned on board, having taken no-
thing ticom the wreck but the watch.—Jamaica Morning
Chronicle.

THE CARSONIAN METHOD OF SLAUGHTERING
ANIMALS FOR HUMAN FOOD.

(From the Times.)
Under the title of A New Method of Slaughtering Ani-
mals for Human Food, Dr. James Carson, of Liverpool, has
published a pamphlet, which, apart from the extraordinary
character of an inhuman mode of putting animals to death
which it recommends• for adoption, calls for notice ; inasmuch
as it directly bears upon important questions of public health,
and affects the interests of various classes of society in addi-
tion to those of carcass butchers, wholesale and retail dealers
in hides, currier, saddlers, coach contractors, trunkmakers,
and cutlers.
Dr. Carson says that he has " discovered a new method of
slaughtering animals for human food, which promises to be
of the greatest benefit to mankind, and for which her majesty
the queen has been graciously pleased to grant him her royal
letters patent." The principle upon which the " patent
method" is founded is, that a power of extensive use to ani-
mal life is derived from the stretch in which the lungs are
held, both in the living and recently dead animal, in opposi-
tion to their elasticity.
It would be out of place here to discuss this or any other
physiological pritkiple. It is sufficient to say that the object
of the new mode of butchering is to remove the natural im-
pediments to the elasticity of the lungs, on which " impedi-
ments" it is contended that " life in a great measure depends,"
and to allow the lungs to collapse while the unfortunate ani-
mal is still alive.
Among the alleged advantages are these-=That the effect is
to retain certain fluids--" indeed, all the finer juices of the
body, at any point, in the same proportion in which they
existed while the animal was still alive, instead of being ac-
cumulated in the large vessels and discharged out of the body
in a mass, and becoming a nuisance."
But that is nothing : the eatable part of a carcass is said to
be increased to at least one-tenth beyond what any mode of
slaughtering hitherto would supply!
Again, meat thus obtained is more juicy, tender, and far
better flavoured ; sets sooner, and is earlier fit for use ; keeps
longer sweet and untainted, because, forsooth, of the vessels
being full, or their pores being hermetically sealed by " an
oozing of juice or lymph from the full vessels, when any por-
tion is cut, upon the raw surface of that portion, and by its
tenacity forming a sealing cement." (p. 6.) Nor is this all.
This meat is more economical, and it never shrinks, but, " on
the contrary, enlarges in cooking!" "It requires less time
to cook. The centre of a large joint is done nearly as soon
as the surface, the meat being less spongy, and a better con-
ductor of heat than meat obtained by any of the modes of
slaughtering at present in use. It preserves well, and re-
quires a much less quantity of salt.'
" Other valuable properties will present themselves to those
who use this meat, and the meat in question is also attended
with advantageous results affecting hides, skins, wool, &c.,
upon which it is not necessary to dilate." (p. 7.)
The natural inquiry is—how are these desirable objects to
be attained ? In other words, how are the animals to ,be
killed? It is necessary to cause the lungs to collapse, and
this, too, during the life of the animal. To speak plainly, the
creature is to be burked or Carsonized. The means differ,
but the end is precisely the same as that " discovered," not
by the " humane" philosophy of .Ds. Carson, but by the
diabolical ingenuity of Burke, and was subsequently followed
out in this very, city by Bishop and others of the same
school. In preparing what they considered good subjects for
the dissecting table of the anatomist, Messrs. Burke, Hare,
and Co. stifled human beings, such as the poor idiot and the
woman Paterson, in Edinburgh, and Bishop and Williams
the Italian boy, in London, first of all soothing their victim
by the previous administration of a composing draught, be-
fore springing upon the chest and rendering " breathingim-
practicable." In Dr. Caison's plan of procuring good meat
for the table of the- epicure the composing draught, or its
equivalent, is not prescribed. The preliminary soothing
means,—namely, a blow upon the head, by which butchers
humanely deaden the consciousness and lessen the sense of
pain in the vath-struggle of animals slaughtered for human
food, as at present in use, is omitted. Instead of being
Burked from without, animals are to be stifled from within
by "a free, sufficiently abundant, and uninterrupted admis-
sion of air into both the cavities formed by the membrane
lining the chest, and that forming the external covering of the
lungs." (p. 8.) A pressure at least equal to that of the at-
mosphere being brought to bear upon the external covering
of the organs within the chest, the lungs collapse ; and when
an animal so situated attempts to inspire and expands the
chest, the air required to occupy the increased dimensions,
instead of entering through the wind pipe' is admitted
through other passages in the manner about to be described ;
in fact, Dr. Carson's own words, " breathing is renderedim-
practicable."
The method of admitting air into the chest is this :—" A.
tube, sharp at one end, and perforated near the point by se-
veral holes, is to communicate at the other end with an air-
tight bag, filled with air, and of a size fitted to different ani-
mals. A button is to be placed on this tube, with a slight
concavity on the side facing the point, and at such a distance
from that point as to admit all the holes in it to be within the
cavity of the chest, into which it is to be introduced. A tube
thus armed is to be introduced, by a simple perforation made
by its sharp point, into the cavity of the chest, between the
fifth and sixth ribs,, on eabh side of the chest, as far as the
button will allow it. The concave side of the button is to
Le filled with some greasy substance, and pressed firmly
against the side of the animal, to prevent any air escaping
along the outside of the tube. The air is then to be pressed
gently out of the bags through the tubes into the chest; the
lungs instantly collapse, and in a minute or two the animal
expires!'
As to no drop of blood being lost in this new, revolting,
and inhuman operation, and the advantages" derivable from
it, compared with the oss of blood which accompanies the
old customary mode of pithing, &c., they are passed by as
merely fanciful, or as nugatory, to say the least of them.
But it is of some importance- to note the admissions which
have escaped from the author of the new mqde of slaughter-
ing : his pamphlet teems with self-contradictions. He is not
so ignorant of the supreme laws of physiology as to be un-
conscious that animals killed in the way proposed by him
must suffer severely. How, then, can he or any one-eyed
partisan misapply the epithet " humane," and insist upon it
as a recommendation to be coupled with the word "new,"
as descriptive of his method of killing animals rot. human
food, and further in favour of it ?
'• A pressure is required to be given to the air introduced,
additional to that of the atmosphere." And why ? "In
order that when the chest is expanded, in the violent efforts
which the animal may [will] make to breathe, the air within
the chest may still, after being thus ratified, sustain a pres-
sure equal to that of the atmosphere. This will easily be ac-
accomplished by keeping a constant pressure upon the air-
bags.' '

We deny tliat-". phis will be easily accomplished." The
amount of extra pressure is not the difficulty ; it is the direc-
tion and steadiness, or equable mode, in which it is brought
to bear over the whole inner surfaces, without exception, to
say nothing of, its source. Unless great tact and manual
dexterity are united with coolness on the part of the operator,
the effect may be conceived when it is recollected that the
atmospheric pressure, not only to be antagonised but over-
borne, is equal to a weight of 151 b. on every square inch.
Other difficulties and sources of embarrassment are over-
looked.
But grant that all is likely or sure to be plain-sailing,
equal to his sanguine expectations, where is our respectable
carcass-butchers and provincial fleshers to procure compe-
tent Carsonizers ? It is clear that a collegiate, with a scien-
tific education, is necessary as a preliminary ; indeed, at
page 17, Dr. Carson admits that the burker must know
something of physiology—ay, and be it added, of the higher
range of mechanics ; for instance, of the laws of air and
fluids in states of motion and of rest—that is to say, of
pneumatics; hydrostatics, and hydrodynamics. But there
is to be a national education, when, of course, every one will
he able to kill his own mutton, and upon the most approved
principles of science' and humanity. The pamphlet and its
proposition are among the signs of the times.
The doctor says—" Though I have described as minutely
and plainly as I can the plan of slaughtering on the princi-
ples I have advanced, I would not recommend any person
who is not well skilled in anatomy, and who does not fully
comprehend the physiological doctrine on which this mode of
slaughtering is founded, to attempt the slaughtering without
seeing it practised repeatedly, and without receiving instruc-
tions from. those who are qualified to give them ; for occur-
rences may take place for which such persons are not pre-
pared, which might defeat the purpose, create embarrassments,
and produce prejudicial results.'
Complexity and intricacy of various kinds are the charac-
teristics of the proposal—the apparatus for stifling the ani-
mals, and the ponderous and expensive machinery to boot
which " is necessary" to secure them " against the power of
of making any extensive movement, or against any accidental
change of position," require a great outlay. To any carcass-
butcher, and still more to those in the country, the perusal
alone of pages 11 and 12 must be sufficient to prohibit the
trial of Dr. Carson's plan. Lambs, calves, sheep, or pigs
may be sufficiently secured on cradles, ", to each corner of
which is fixed a perpendicular post." The post must have
buckles, and " at different heights," &c. ; and then comes
another admission in favour of the plan, namely—" that
these cradles must be of different dimensions, suiting the
bulk of the animals to be placed on them."
There is no comparison hetween the established and the

...„
proposed method. Death by the latter is, must be, more
lingering; and then the appalling sense in which the animal
continnes of its cruel situation ! And all this for what ? To
get meat, it is said, some penny a pound cheaper than what
sensible people ought rather, if compelled, to pay 2d a pound
more to get quit of—namely, retained vitiated blood and
juices, gorging and saturating their cutlets, joints, and steaks.
It may be put to any one, and all affections of refinement
or delicacy apart, if the. idea of eating retained blood and
juices be not enongh to blunt the keenest hunger, and to de-
stroy the appetite or turn the stomach of the least fastidious.
To recapitulate a few only of the objections to Dr. Carson's
extraordinary proposal.
I.—it is denied .that meat procured in the way proposed
can be more economical than that by the mode now practised.
2.—That it cannot be cheaper than that killed by the esta-
blished mode is evident,,,Ates:Parcass butchers to be at an
enormous and unneee Anry'nntiay in the first instance in pro-
curing expensive booths, buckle , 'osts, and machinery, and
all for ziothing?,;lo . return to pay tip the in-
vestment andointert9ia piers to become patriotic
and bleed for their customeriicills'it'tiiiible army of martyrs ?
Are the burkers, or trained opergite—Surgeons, to Carsonize
,sgoundum artetra gratiltoittlrriir4v/Illhey nat. "strike," or
NShbr refitsh to strikar,,utibia.l\for higher fees, because moving
4,40 i ptaotising: a•-higliet”graiV'Of the profession ? Would
ltbey noturge such a--claini, and twitlr reason ?
1.1.41• strong.objection to'Cartnnized meat is, thatif it, is sane-
tientif it comeinto partial use, the carcasses Of aninials
th4t live been smotheted on • board of steam-bolts' or else-
benffered oh sale in our markets. And seriously,
between smothered mutton or beef, and that tiff ect 'in the
way 'proposed, what is the distinctive difference, of any real
weight ?
Instead of Dr. Carson's " plan" being of advantage as af-
fects `!-hides, skins, wool, &c.," we consider it necessary to
dilate thus far, and to say that the very reverse will be the
result.. The patentee is either ignorant of; or,- in his zeal,
has not stated, what at present are the requisites looked for
by dealers and buyers of hides and skins. If at all cut in the
sides their value is immensely deteriorated. If so, must not
an additional price be laid upon the carcass, and on each pound
of it, to indemnify the butcher for what otherwise must be a
loss to him in the gross price paid for the animal to the agri-
culturists ? Hides will be injured, and burked meat, sooner
or later, must become dearer instead of cheaper than that at
present in the market.
• • As respects the health of the community, what serious and
loathsome diseases may not be engendered, with their origin
unsuspected, by the flesh of overdriven and maddened animals
being eaten ; for the fevered blood and the vitiated juices from
it, instead of being drawn off, is retained, hermetically sealed
by the " cement" self-provided and attendant on the new
mode ?

Last of all—the ideal advantages enumerated by the patentee
must appear to all competent to judge of their pretensions as
chimerical. Why meat, it would seem, becomes metamor-

„
phosed, as if by magic, or the fabled touch of the philosopher's
stone ! Meat is, ”as it were, created" (p. 10) ' • agricultur-
ists have no occasion to keep their herds and flocks at grass
longer than they shall have attained a full growth ; and they
will at any age, if otherwise prepared, be fit for the butcher,'
(p. 17.) Veal" (but it will be no longer veal ; let lovers of
cutlets look to it) "will equal in richness and surpass in
tenderness, the finest beef!" (p. 16.) And a patent has
been granted for value received for a plan backed with
such Munchausen recommendations---Tecommendations un-

parallelled, except by those 'of the worthy baron and by
one Major Wheeler, in the farce of " New Notions," in
which, by virtue of his patent compressing apparatus, saw-
dust poured in at the one end of it comes out in the form
of ready-made mahogany chairs and tables at the other.
Things are better managed in France, as Sterne says. We
are not prepared to advance that such a patent as this would
not have been granted in that country ; but this is certain,

that meat killed upon the suffocating principle of Burke and
Hare would not be suffered to be exposed' for sale in the
markets of Paris, until a report in its favour had been drawn
up and duly attested by a competent committee of examina-
tors. Public health is neglected in England, and is left
without a single guardian but the press. It is for this reason
that so much*Space has been devoted to the extraordinary
proposal broached in a pamphlet, evidently the production
of one who, in the present day, would by several be taken
for an original thinker. Speculative waywardness, especially
in medicine and diet, is often mistaken for originality, just
as sheer impulse is confounded, with energy, and rash pre-
cipitancy with decision of character.