Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-01-16
A sLAUGHTER-HOUsE CURE.
Bathing Human Sufferers in the Car
cases of Freshly killed Animals.

What is known as the slaughter house
cure is one of the newest freaks of New
York life. It's adopts are persons affiict-
ed with tormenting bodily maladies,
more especially those of cutaneous ma
ture, and the form of cure which they
practice may be witnessed at some of
the cattle-slaughtering places which
abound in the neighborhood of First
avenue and Forty-sixth street. Strange
and what would be considered repulsive
spectacles, were it not for the motive
for them, are frequently presented in
the places during the hours OF butcher
ing. Mothers are to be seen with young
children, troubled and sick with physi-
cal infirmities, engaged in bathing the
suffering ones in the viscera of freshly
killed animals, while they are yet warm
and palpitating with the animal heat.
The belief prevails that these INNER
sions in the carcas' sses Of animals are
efficacious in restoring health and
strength to crippled. weak and affected
parts of the body, more particularly to
the extremities, like the hands and feet.
How this queer belief originated those
acquainted with the subject cannot tell,
DuI lutb ll6 DtbLo arc hnh AAlOAO
outre than the mud baths of the ancients
may be readily understood.
1t is only on pleasant days that the
believers in the slaughter-house cure
make their appearance at the abattoirs.
Mothers are to be met with on such days
on their way through Forty-sixth street
and the adjacent thoroughfares bringing
their little ones with them to the cattle
pens to undergo the treatment. "Give
us q bath" is the usual form OF request,
and the permission is rarely refused by
the butchers. In some special instances
the applicants are favored with the priv
ilege of bathing their young in the car
cases before they have been dressed and
while they are hanging from the hooks.
The proprietor of one OF the slaughter
houses visited by believers in the cure
for the purpose of undergoing the treat
ment said that he could not account for
the origin of the custom. 1t was first
heard OF subsequent to the MANN for
drinking blood, prevalent here tor long
time, and which he thought might have
suggested the present remedy. The no
ton that those engaged in the killing
and dressing of cattle are robust and
vigorous lot of men may have had some
thing to do with the belief. The heat
and vitality Of the freshly killed cattle
was no doubt impaired to those indulg-
ing in the singular baths to some extent,
and where they were taken regularly
beneficial results, he thought, might be
derived. He said that he knew of one
case OF child that had been saved from
death by the agency of the baths, and
concluded that there were other cases of
successful cure. Another butcher said
that the baths were not likely TO become
popular and that the owners of the
slaughter houses would not like to see
them so, as too many demands for the
cure operation would interrupt business.
As for himself, he did not have much
faith in it. Most OF those who partook
OF the baths we're the children of parents
residing in the vicinity, and who were
doubtless attracted to the supposed cure
by the accessibility OF the shambles, and
the further fact that it costs nothing for
the treatment. The idea of the baths
might have started with the butchers
themselves, and very probably did. Both
bullock and sheep carcasses were used
by the believers in the strange cure, but
the preference was for bovines. as they
were thought to possess greater health
giving qualities.
A medical man, who was told Of the
cure, though the belief WAS q mere
mania.