26 THE PROGRESS OF HIPPOPHAGY. 



against oxen smitten with carbuncle, a much more for- 

 midable disease than glanders. 



It is objected that good horse-flesh would be too dear. 

 Parisian horses unfit for work from old age, premature 

 use, and various accidents, are worth about twenty 

 francs ; and all the meat eaten by M. Decroix, or given 

 by him to others during five years, was that of animals 

 of the average value of fifteen francs. He insists that it 

 was not merely good, but very good ! No doubt a good 

 horse generally costs more than a good ox. Nobody 

 thinks of sending to the butcher horses worth 60, but 

 only those unfit for work, and consequently not worth 

 more than from 2 to 5 at the most. One of the 

 horses given to the poor cost 15 francs, and yielded 

 about 450 Ib. net, which is less than a penny a-pound. 

 If the working- classes believe this and really it can- 

 not reasonably be called in question it is evidently 

 their own fault if they do not speedily make more ac- 

 quaintance with the comfort yielded by flesh-pots. We 

 pray them to reflect that every horse buried or given to 

 the dogs is a loss, on the average, of 450 Ib. of valu- 

 able food. If they fancy that the flesh of an old horse 

 must be black, stringy, tough, and disgusting, experi- 

 ence shows that it is not. Almost all the horses eaten 

 by M. Decroix and his friends, or given away, were 

 aged; and, nevertheless, he adduces the evidence of 

 priests and sisters of charity to show that the meat was 

 sought after with avidity. 



Having thus disposed of objections, our author pro- 

 ceeds to speak of the advantages of hippophagy. Here 

 he rides his hobby with consummate intrepidity, scout- 

 ing the idea that it is cruelty to feed on animals which 

 have served us long and well, and placing first the 

 benefit to the horses. It is easy to laugh at the notion 

 of killing horses in order to save them pain, but a little 

 reflection shows that the humane societies which pat- 

 ronise horse -eating are right when maintaining that 

 thus much cruelty is prevented. A labouring ox is 



