200 Scientific Intelligence. Anthropology. 



of animal food for their customers. Omitting the earlier no- 

 tices of the practice, which are contained in the work before us, 

 we shall take the matter up in the year 1825, when the Board 

 of Health, having acquired proof that the horse-flesh sold for 

 the dogs was habitually also used by the poorer classes ; and 

 considering the article to be well-tasted and nutritious that the 

 workmen of Montfaucon throve upon it, and that military men 

 have often been glad enough to get it, proposed to regularise 

 the sale by open permission, and the establishment of horse- 

 butcheries, where sound animals alone should be slaughtered."* 

 This proposition was not approved, and the subject was for that 

 time dropped. In 1822, and from thenceforward to 1830, an in- 

 dividual having obtained the permission to introduce horse-flesh 

 into Paris, for the use of the wild beasts at the Jardin des 

 Plantes, sold enormous quantities to the poor in the Faubourg 

 St Marcel. Accordingly, in the distress which followed the 

 Revolution of 1830, the project of an open and lawful sale of 

 the article was again brought forward ; but it was considered 

 that society having by common consent refused the flesh of 

 this animal, there must be something inherently disgusting in 

 its use ; and the idea was again rejected. The author, how- 

 ever, adds : ' I have, notwithstanding, myself acquired a per- 

 fect proof, that a larger quantity of horse-flesh was never con- 

 sumed than during the last winter. The workmen out of em- 

 ployment were in the habit of going to the knacker's yard, 

 where it was given to them in any quantity they desired, with- 

 out their troubling themselves with inquiries into the causes of 

 the animal's death. It was sufficient that the meat looked well, 

 in order to be put aside for distribution. The Commissary of 

 Police for the quarter of Saint Martin declared, that horse-flesh 

 was notoriously sold, at several restaurateurs, at four sous per 

 Ib. ; and that, when it could not be brought into town during 

 the day, it was, during the night, and at an appointed time and 

 place, thrown over the walls in large quantities, and immediate- 

 ly taken away.' This, he adds, is practised every day. To 

 complete this sketch, we have only to repeat the Doctor's as- 

 sertion, that < he never attended the depot for knacking the 

 dead dogs and cats of Paris, without finding some of both spe- 

 cies prepared for the spit ; and (he asks) are these intended for 



