24 THE PKOGRESS OF HIPPOPHAGY. 



have read M. Decroix's address to the Imperial Society 

 of Acclimatisation, and shall avail ourselves of it freely 

 in bringing before our readers the pros and cons of the 

 horse-eating controversy. 



As to the alimentary qualities of horse-flesh : slaugh- 

 ter and skin a horse for the butcher, there is no notable 

 difference between its flesh and that of the working ox, 

 in respect to colour, smell, and general appearance. 

 When cooked, the resemblance is so great that M. De- 

 croix for more than a year gave it at his own table to 

 his relatives, friends, and acquaintances without their 

 suspecting what it was. Stewed, roasted, a la mode, 

 and as soup, it was always pronounced good, sometimes 

 perfect. When boiled, it was generally firmer, and 

 always much leaner, than beef. In this form it is not 

 so agreeable as ordinary beef, but it is more nourishing 

 and salubrious than young oxen prematurely and rapidly 

 fattened, arid whose flesh is pale, soft, watery, and too 

 loaded with fat. 



As to its salubrity, Baron Larrey, the father of mili- 

 tary surgery, often fed the sick and wounded on horse- 

 flesh, and pronounced it perfectly healthy ; he even 

 declared that it helped to remove an epidemic of 

 scurvy. M. Baudens fed with it the soldiers of a 

 battery of artillery, and they escaped the serious dis- 

 orders which were devastating the rest of the army. 



In 1856 the Council of Health for the Seine, officially 

 consulted by the Minister of Agriculture, declared that 

 horse-flesh is healthful, and should be publicly sold in 

 a special butcher-market. 



In respect to salubrity, reason completely accords with 

 science. We may almost certainly infer what is the 

 alimentary value of the flesh of any species of animal 

 when we know what it feeds on. The general rule is 

 that the flesh of the herbivora is salubrious, nourishing, 

 and suited to our functions of digestion. That of the 

 carnivora is disagreeable, and impregnated with an odour 

 exciting disgust. There is great difference in that of 



