A NEW MODE OF SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS INTENDED FOR HUMAN FOOD
Year: 1838

page_text: до
SHALL COME 1, JAMES
CARSON, of Liverpool, Doctor of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twelfth day of December, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Carson, her especial license that I, the said James Carson, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Carson, my exors,
adiiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A NEW MODE OF
SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS INTENDED FOR HUMAN FOOD;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said James Carson, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Carson, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention as follows,
that is to say:-

page_text: The physiological principle upon which it is founded, is that a power of
great and extensive use to animal life, is derived from the stretch in which the
Jungs are held, both in the living and recently dead animal in opposition to
their elasticity. In consequence of this power existing after death while the
antagonist and controlling power derived from irritability was destroyed with
life, the blood and the contents of the lymphatic and lacteal systems are nearly
all drained from the arteries and small veins of the larger circulation, and from
the lymphatics and lacteals of the parts traversed by that circulation into the
blood vessels of the viscera within the chest and into the roots of the larger
veins approaching to it.
The object of the mode of slaughtering, which constitutes my said Invention,
is to remove the impediments which nature has set up against the elasticity
of the lungs, on the existence of which impediments life in a great measure
depen:ls, and of course to allow the lungs to resiliate into their natural
dimensions, or in other words, to collapse while the animal is still alive; the
effect of this method of slaughtering is, to retain the lymphatic and lacteal
fluids, and 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 accumulated in the large vessels and discharged out of the body in a
mass and becoming a nuisance.
It is necessary for the full accomplishment of the object aimed at by this
method of slaughtering, that a pressure at least equal to that of the 'atnio-
sphere, shall be made to rest upon the external surface of the lungs, and of the
other viscera within the chest, from which surfaces a part of that pressure is
removed during life, and for a considerable time after the death of the animal
by the elasticity of the lungs. This object is accomplished by a free, sufficiently
abundant and uninterrupted admission of air into both of the cavities formed
by the membrane lining the chest, and that forming the external covering of
the lungs, a pressure at least equal to that of the atmosphere being thus brought
to rest upon the external surfaces of the organs contained by the cliest; the
lungs in obedience to their structure collapse when the animal in this situation
attempts to inspire and expands the chest, the air required to occupy the in-
creased dimensions instead of entering through the windpipe, in which direction
it has to encounter the disengaged elasticity of the lungs, is admitted through
other passages, provided in the manner about to be described. The transmission
of air through the windpipe, in other words, breathing, is impracticable, and as
none of the viscera of the chest will be relieved from any portion of the
atmospherical pressure, all suction or draining of the fluids towards the chest
is prevented, however extensive that expansion may be; and in further com

page_text: pliance with the said proviso, I, the said James Carson, do hereby describe.
the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
The method for admitting air into the cavities of the chest is the
following:-
Figure 1: A tube A, pointed at one end B, and perforated near the point by
several holes C, is to communicate at the other end with an air-tight bag D,
filled with air and of a size fitted to different animals; a button E 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 (to be made by a scalpel or lancet) into
the cavity of the chest between the fifth and sixth rib on each side of the chest ;
at the same time, as far as the button will allow it, the concave side of the
button is to be 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.
Not a drop of blood is lost in this operation, and if the same vessels be divided,
which, in the case of an ox being killed by knocking on the head or pithing
would discharge in the course of a minute or two from forty to seventy pounds
weight of blood, they would not in this case yield more than a spoonfull or two.
A pressure is required to be given to the air introduced additional to that of
the atmosphere, in order that when the chest is expanded in the violent efforts
which the animal may make to breathe, the air within the cbest may still after
being thus rarefied, sustain a pressure equal to that of the atmosphere. This will
be easily accomplished by keeping a constant pressure upon the air bags; the
additional heat required by the air after it has been a few seconds within the
chest will aid this effect; by this means any chance of a portion of the atmo-
spherical pressure being removed from the pectoral viscera while it rests wholly
upon the rest of the body, will be prevented, and of course all draining of fluids.
from the body into the viscera of the chest guarded against. For the success--
ful application of this apparatus it is necessary that the animal should be.
secured against the power of making any extensive movement, or against
any accidental change of position, as shewn at Figure 2 with reference to
an ox. G is supposed to be a strong beam; H, H, two tackle falls; the
animal being thrown on his back, should be drawn up by these tackles fastened
to the fore legs till he assumes the position here shewn; his head and hind

page_text: part should then be secured to rings in the floor; F is the spot where the
perforation is to be made and the instrument of death is to be applied, and the
arrow shows the direction it is to take.
Figure 3 is a section of the cavity of the chest showing at J, where the point
of the instrument enters to effect its purpose. Lambs, calves, pigs, or sheep
may be sufficiently secured by being placed upon an oblong shallow cradle, to
cach corner of which is fixed a perpendicular post; these posts are fitted with
buckles at different heights, by which a limb of the animal is fastened to each
post; by these means the animal, without being subjected to much pain, is
secured against the power of making any movement or change of position. I
need not say that these cradles must be of different dimensions, suiting the
bulk of the animals to be placed on them.
But whereas the mode of securing the animal to be slaughtered may vary
according to circumstances dependent on the locality where the operation is to
be performed, the ingenuity of the operator, or the temper and power of the
animal.
1
And I hereby claim as my Invention only the mode of slaughtering animals
intended for human food by causing a pressure at least equal to and better if
exceeding the pressure of the atmosphere upon the external surface of the
lungs, and of the other viscera in the chest by an abundant and uninterrupted
free admission of air into both the cavities formed by the membrane lining the
chest, and that forming the external covering of the lungs, thereby causing the
lungs to collapse. And such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge
and belief entirely new, and never before used within that part of. Her said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or Her Colonies and
Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the
same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all
respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Carson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the above-
named James Carson, in the presence of
JOHN HOLDEN,
JAS CARSON. (L.S.)
Sol', Liverpool.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid James Carson came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.