HUMANITY TO HORSES. 309 



reform sufficient to deprive him of sensation, which can 

 be readily tested by the occasional prick of a pin." 



Why should the neglect of a veterinary surgeon to 

 use chloroform not be treated as an offence against the 

 Act for Preventing Cruelty to Animals ? 



Besides advocating humanity to the horse, whether 

 in health or sickness, our author most properly insists 

 on the duty of sparing the poor animal all needless 

 suffering, when at last he is sent to the slaughterer 

 u 1 J equarrisseur" as he is termed in Paris and of whose 

 operations he gives an interesting account : " Before 

 me was a mass of about fifty yards of motionless and 

 moving substances. The former were the carcasses of 

 horses, at the furthermost end, in their hides ; nearer, 

 just skinned ; nearer still, headless ; and close to me 

 divided into limbs. Among this mass of skulls, bones, 

 limbs, and dull flabby skins, stooping and standing in 

 various attitudes, were the men who were performing 

 these various operations. In a portion of the yard, 

 about fifty yards off, I found standing, tied up to a 

 strong rail, the three horses next to be slaughtered. 

 What were their disorders, of lungs or limbs, whether 

 they were broken-winded or incurably lame, were facts 

 I did not care to investigate ; but there is something 

 so revolting in the idea of allowing a poor horse our 

 willing servant-of-all-work to suffer in his last moments 

 from the pangs of hunger, that I was glad when a single 

 glance at their flanks showed me that they were full of 

 food. They are not allowed to be kept alive above 

 twenty-four hours. During the time they are alive, 

 horses, cows, and bullocks receive one botte of hay per 

 day ; asses and mules half a botte. 



" A few yards off was a large heap of horses' feet, 

 and as most of them had shoes on, I inquired the rea- 

 son. l Ah!' said the man, very gravely, ' cest qu'ik ont 

 appartenu a des personnes qui ne samusent pas a les de- 

 ferrer : ' ' Ah, it is because they belonged to people who 

 did not care about taking the shoes off/ He then con- 



