DIFFERENCES IN QUALITY OF MUTTON. 93 



extent, the fat shifts from the outward to the inward 

 parts, allowing- the outline of the muscles to be dis- 

 tinctly seen, but giving at the same time to the figure 

 that portly symptom of good keeping, so unpleasant to 

 the eye when carried to the extent of Aldermanic 

 dignity. All these appearances are, however, varied 

 by exercise, which tends, in a marked degree, to in- 

 crease the muscular parts at the expense of the fat — 

 the former becoming, when employed within proper 

 limits, large, and unyielding to the touch, while at the 

 same time the colour is heightened from a pale or pur- 

 ple hue, to the bright vermilion so justly relied upon 

 by housewives, as a guarantee for the superior qualities 

 of the article. The wild horses in South America, which 

 form the principal part of Indian diet, are said by these 

 epicures to be much improved for the table by gentle 

 labour, and to be quite on a par when thus cared for, 

 with some of our best beef. This plan is, however, 

 only pursued for the purpose of rendering the flesh of 

 their horses moderately firm ; but where an opposite 

 effect is desired it is readily, though cruelly, produced 

 by putting the animal to a lingering death ; examples 

 of which practice are to be met with in the annals of 

 most civilized nations ; as in the German mode <x 

 whipping pigs, and the English custom of baiting bulls ;* 

 both tending to the same end, by so exhausting vital 

 contractibility as to prevent its last and faint display in 

 the stiffening of the carcass. 



Marshall, who touches very slightly on the subject, 

 says, " The flesh of sheep when slaughtered is well 



* By the old English law, no bull beef could be sold unless the bull 

 had been baited. 



