"BANQUET HIPPOPHAGIQUE." 13 



comical. M. Saitit-Hilaire was President of the So- 

 ciety of Acclimatation. Having invited a member of this 

 society to taste of a kind of meat undoubtedly new to him, 

 the learned doctor thought his opinion was sought for 

 in regard to some rare and newly-introduced animal ; 

 and so, after having duly tasted it, he gave it thus : 

 " In my opinion it is of the utmost importance to accli- 

 matise this animal." It was horse-flesh ! 



These things being so, how comes it that there is 

 such a prejudice against such a valuable article of 

 food ? Our Professor hunts down this prejudice wher- 

 ever displayed. He first falls foul of certain Chinese 

 doctors who have interdicted the use of horse-flesh in 

 their much-admired production, Chi-wou-pen-thsao-hoei- 

 tsouan. And certainly he does make mince-meat of 

 these poor Chinese, who, in the plenitude of their wis- 

 dom, declare that to eat of a white horse with a black 

 foot, or of a white horse with a black head, will make a 

 man mad. These worthies also teach that to hang up 

 a monkey in a stable is an infallible preventive of all 

 horse-diseases. 



In reference to European prejudice, M. Saint-Hilaire 

 remarks : " One cannot directly attack, as I have at- 

 tacked, an old idea without encountering the warmest 

 opposition, any more than you can pull up a deeply- 

 rooted tree without vigorous efforts." And so he rides 

 his hobby with a firm seat, and is as little daunted by 

 the folly of fools as by the sneers of witlings, or the 

 objections of reasonable people. He discusses with 

 much dignity and good temper the objections of his 

 learned friends, MM. Valenciennes and Milne Edwards, 

 and proves that they are in error when supposing that 

 only the flesh of young horses is good, inasmuch as 

 most satisfactory meals have been made upon animals 

 from seventeen up to twenty-five years old. To certain 

 objectors, to whom he declines to apply the epithet 

 savants, who allege that the public sale of horse-flesh 

 would excite among those using it a feeling of ill-will 



