CUf Ion College Scientific Society. 61 



The last part of the dead horse that requires to be spoken of 

 is the fat. It would be a difficult and tedious matter to attempt 

 to give anything like a full account of all the uses of fat. One or 

 two may be noticed. Besides the fat proper, a large quantity, 

 amounting to many tons a week in London alone, is extracted 

 from the crushed bones by boiling them. This bone-fat is in great 

 request for making pomatum, bears'-grease so called, and the 

 superior kinds of toilet soaps. The coarser fat is converted into 

 the commoner soaps and into candles. 



The introduction of spermaceti and paraffin as light-producers 

 has of late driven tallow to a great extent out of the field. 



The quantity of fat derived from a well -conditioned horse is 

 about 50 lb., worth about 6d. a pound. 



Thus we have found that a horse is quite as useful when dead 

 as he was when alive. The popular saying, that when a thing 

 is dead there is an end of it, is quite as untrue as many other 

 popular sayings. We have shown that it certainly is not true of 

 the horse, and we may even go so far as to say, that ' man's friend' 

 when dead is only just beginning to show how useful he is. 



To sum up the short sketch we have given, let us see what part 

 a dead horse plays at a small supper party, for there he appears 

 in as many shapes as Proteus of old. The chairs and sofas are 

 probably indebted more or less to his coat for their stuffing and 

 their covers. The room may possibly be lit with candles to which 

 he has contributed his share ; and to him may be due the salt 

 and mustard spoons, as well as the handles of the knives and the 

 napkin rings. If he does not furnish the ' roast or boiled,' he 

 may at all events have had a share in the jellies and sausages. 



For the toilet-table of the guests he may have provided the 

 scented soap and pomatum (or bears'-grease, if you like that name 

 better) ; the tooth-brush owes to him its handle, and probably the 

 tooth-powder has been made from his burnt bones, since under 

 the name of charcoal or charcoal-paste, bone-black does duty in 

 cleansing the teeth, which teeth the horse has helped to produce 

 in the shape of superphosphate applied to the fields ; in this latter 

 form, also, he assisted in growing the wheat from which came the 

 flour for the tarts and puddings. The young gentleman's cane 

 and the young lady's parasol are under obligation to him for their 

 ornamental handles. The different parts of the tables and chairs 

 are fixed together with glue made from his tendons, bones, and 

 skin. Perhaps he has helped to embellish the walls in the way 

 of leather for the binding of the books and the frames of the 

 pictures, since these latter are often made of leather. Some of 

 the clothes, also, may owe their colour to the Prussian blue, 

 which has derived part of its constituents from the horse; and the 



