ii6 A BOOK OF MORTALS 



speaking, it may be said that nearly 3^ million cattle are 

 slaughtered in Great Britain every year, and that the flesh of 

 a million and a half more is imported for our use from 

 abroad ! Nearly five million lives, for which strict account 

 must be given as a dynamic force ! 



And beyond this we have to reckon the value to us of so 

 much. The hides for all the innumerable leather industries, 

 the horns and hoofs for as many more minor needs. Over 

 and above the skins of the three million slain cattle we 

 British import nearly a million hundredweights of hides. 

 And each hundredweight averages how many skins .? 



Truly the score is great, the dead weight of obligation 

 heavy. 



Nor is this all. There is the milk ! Billions, trillions 

 fail us in the account of the gallons consumed. And how 

 about the lives this milk has saved .'' In these days in 

 which woman ceases to be a mammal and babies are not 

 yet born with teeth, is it not safe to say that Herod's would 

 be merciful indeed beside the great Slaughter of Innocents 

 which would ensue if every cow in England ran dry to-day ! 



The very thought cannot be entertained for a second. 

 It is too terrible, too tragic. Helpless, flat-bosomed women 

 watching their infants starve while doctors and analysts 

 work day and night to find some suitable aliment of which 

 milk does not form a part. Let us drop the subject, since 

 even its contemplation will not drive woman back to her 

 first duty. 



Briefly then, the immortality of our race lies in the 

 udders of the milky mothers of the herd. Nearly all the 

 charm of our children, we take, and take thanklessly, from 

 the beast who, lowing piteously for her own new-born, does 



