The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-06-11
Slaughter Of Food-Animals Among the
Jews.

According to the analysis of DIR. Rab-
binoniez, of Paris, the Jewish Talmudic
rules concerning the slaughter of food
animals were framed with the special
object of providing for the intliction OF
the least possible suffering upon the an
imal, and of procuring the meat in the
most wholesome condition for food. They
prohibit the stunning of the animal by a
blow on the forehead, because it is far
from certain that the blow Immediately
annuls pain, and it is certain that itdoes
not annul it if inflicted by an awkward
hand. The rules require that the act OF
killing shall be performed by the sweep
of long, sharp instrument, which shall
at once sever, more or less completely,
the trachea and esophagus. They do
not require the arteries to be cut, for
the nature of those vessels was not
known when the rules were made, but
the arteries and the important nerves
around their sheath are cut in practice,
and the animal speedily faints into in
sensibility and dies of hemorrhage. The
important points of the code are, that
the steps in slaughter shall be continu-
Gus, because any interruption, however,
minute, in the process, is likely to pro-
long the sufferings of the animal and
make it unfit for food; that the cut shall
be made by to-and fro stroke, without
any pressure beyond what is required to
carry the knife down to the necessary
depth that the incision in the skin shall
accurately coincide in length with the
deeper portion, so as to leave no ''tail''
to the wound; that the wound shall not
be made so high as to risk contact OF
the knife with the bony structures above
the cartilaginous rings of the trachea,
for this would be likely to cause
preventable suffering to the animal, and
compel the rejection of its flesh as food !;
and that no tissue should be torn or jag
ged. The candidate for a license to
slaughter has to go through a long
course of preparation, of which kind
of rough anatomy forpls part, and af.
terward to prove his competency to the
satisfaction of the appointed authorities.
The heart is also carefully examined, to
ascertain whether it is fit for food. The
rules on this subject, although made be-
fore anything was accurately known of
pathology, contribute, as whole, to the
selection of that which is good and to the
rejection of that which is bad. The use
of the blood is forbidden, and it is in the
blood that science to-day tells us the
germs and the matters that are detri-
mental are most likely to be found and
to be most active. The lung is the organ
most diligently searched and severely
tested; and it is the lung which is most
liable to disease, and in which, when
disease is present, it is most obvious.
Fewer directions are given concerning
search for morbid conditions in the other
organs, ''for, as it was known that ami
mails were but rarely perfectly sound in
their entire system, more rigid search
would have been nearly tantamount to
depriving the people altogether of ami
NAL food. But, although a search for
other diseased organs is not enjoined,
any morbid condition observed by the
practiced eye of the slaughterer insures
the rejection of the animal as food" -
Popular Science Monthly.