The horribly cruel and only too prevalent idea that lobsters and other shellfish cannot be killed save by being boiled alive is absolutely false. To kill a lobster, pierce the spinal cord right through with a sharp skewer, just where the back of the head joins the spine, and in this way death will be instantaneous.

Crabs are quickly killed by stabbing through the spine, just as the root of the tail.

— Fish and How to Cook It by Mrs. C. S. Peel (1907)