4 H1PPOPHAGY. 



If our old friend Count Kumford deserves to live in 

 the public memory as a benefactor to the human race, 

 because of his benevolent ingenuity in turning to the 

 best account the usual articles of food, M. Saint-Hilaire 

 claims a niche in the temple of fame on account of his 

 eloquent and scientific demonstration of the excellent 

 qualities of a species of food the prejudice against the 

 use of which, in Europe at least, is inveterate, and 

 almost universal. The human stomach, at least when 

 hungry, is not apt to be sentimental ; but it is aston- 

 ishingly apt to be squeamish and whimsical. Hence 

 the strenuous efforts of his Government have only par- 

 tially induced the white-snail-eating Austrian to par- 

 take of horse-flesh ; and if Louis Napoleon were to de- 

 clare it his imperial pleasure that Paris should consume 

 a large proportion of this really excellent food, what a 

 dangerous commotion would there be among the frog- 

 eaters on the banks of the Seine ! 



M. Saint-Hilaire is well aware of the inveteracy of 

 the prejudice which obstructs his philanthropy ; for nine 

 years he exposed its folly in the presence of the enlight- 

 ened audiences which yearly listened with delight to 

 his lectures in the Museum of Natural History ; and, 

 so anxious was he to give it the coup-de-grace, that for 

 several months he suspended the publication of his 

 4 General Natural History,' in order that he might publish 

 the thoroughly practical work on which we are now 

 commenting. " May it," he exclaims, " be the death- 

 blow to that silly prejudice against which I have been 

 contending for nine years, and against which I shall 

 contend so long as I witness the deplorable spectacle 

 of millions of Frenchmen deprived of animal food ; eat- 

 ing it six times, twice, once a-year ! and in presence of 

 this misery millions of pounds of good meat given over 

 to industry every month for secondary purposes, aban- 

 doned to swine and dogs, or even cast into the dung- 

 hill." 



To know that there are many as miserable as them- 



