154 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



mucb better suited for the sliambles than for work. Poor men are 

 often compelled, bj a tyrannical law, the result of a sickly and gush- 

 ing sentiment, to sacrifice to the knacker, who pays them nothing, 

 horses that a few weeks' suitable feeding and rest would make 

 worth forty to sixty dollars for meat. Hundreds of so-called weeds 

 are yearly born and raised by farmers and breeders, to be at matu- 

 rity simjjly objects of torture from their unfitness for work, that at 

 four to six months old would pay a reasonable profit to the owner 

 as horse-veal, for the expense of raising and breeding. "While, so 

 far as we know, no horse-meat is offered for sale in the markets or 

 provision-stores of this country and Britain, it is fast becoming uni- 

 versalized among the cities of Northern Europe, as may be seen 

 from the following : 



For the first six months of the year 1877 the horse-butchers of 

 Paris slaughtered 5,283 horses, donkeys, and mules ; the same fur- 

 nished 959,730 kilos (1,919,460 pounds) of flesh ; while, for the same 

 part of the year 1876, the number of animals of the same species 

 which were used was 4,422, and the net amount of flesh sold, 

 803,500 kilos (1,607,000 pounds). In 1878 the number of horses 

 and mules thus slaughtered was 11,319, while in 1877 there were 

 10,619, showing an increase of 700 head in one year. 



Decroix,* a most enthusiastic hippophagist of France, says that 

 " for some years hygienists and pathologists have been directing 

 their attention to the progressive invasions made by tape-worms 

 in the human species, and they have applied themselves to discover 

 the cause of these invasions, and the means by which they may be 

 opposed. Notwithstanding several very interesting works, some 

 points are still controverted ; but it has been demonstrated that we 

 are attacked by the armed tape-worm, taenia solium^ as well as the 

 unarmed, ioenia mediocanellata, or better, tcenia itiermis / that the 

 germs of these entozoa are introduced into the intestinal canal of 

 man by the flesh he eats ; and, finally, that the armed tape-worm 

 is derived from the pig, and the unarmed from the flesh of cattle 

 and sheep. The former, says Dr. Cobbold, are found chiefly to in- 

 fest people of the poorer classes, while the latter are more frequently 

 found among the wealthy. It is well known that the larvae of this 

 parasite {tcenia inermes) are derived from imperfectly -cooked veal 

 and beef. M. Regnault has made tlie interesting remark that the 

 number of armed tape-worms has not notably increased, while the 

 unai*med worm has become more and more frequent. The certain 

 cause of this frequency has been considered to be the therapeutic 



* " Veterinary Journal," iii, p. 47. 



