12 INTRODUCTION 



ance with these animals. I learn from inquiries into the 

 matter, that knackers as a rule, keep piggeries of their own. 

 A principal of a veterinary college once told me that an 

 exclusive diet of dead horse does not enhance the food 

 value of pork, bacon and ham ; for when he used to feed 

 his pigs on the remains obtained in the college dissecting- 

 room, the people who bought his corpulent swine, frequently 

 complained that the fat of the animals all turned into 

 grease during the process of cooking. Pigs fed on butter- 

 milk, potatoes, and other vegetables are quite good enough 

 for me. 



About this time, when I was on a visit to Mr. Tom 

 Mitchell, the well-known owner, breeder, judge, and pos- 

 sessor of the incomparable hackney champion, Ganymede 

 (Fig. 5), I had the pleasure and good fortune to meet 

 Dr. Rabagliati, author of Air, Food, and Exercise. While 

 we were having a stroll, he saw that I was lame, I forget on 

 which foot, and remarked that I was rheumatic. I replied in 

 the negative ; but he insisted that he was right, and pointing 

 to the foot upon which I was going short, asked: "What 

 about that ? " I said that my lameness was probably due 

 to a fall I recently had when schooling a horse. " But," he 

 persisted, "you look rheumatic; you are out of condition; 

 and you are getting fat." The statement was horrible, 

 brutal, but absolutely true. I took the verbal punishment 

 meekly, and sorrowfully answered : " Doctor, you are right 

 about the fat, and worse than all, I am losing my nerve ; but 

 I don't think I am rheumatic." The only reply he made 

 to this, was to take me by the arm and to press the points 

 of his fingers, not with any undue force, on various parts 

 of my back and neck. The pressure was as painful as it 

 was convincing, so I cried out that I was mistaken, and 

 would do anything he would tell me. " You are troubled 

 with indigestion," he remarked. I assented. " You eat 



