The most simple means of employing dead Animals. 327 



in which such employments can be regarded as desirable. The 

 physiological facts are also very surprising, and such as we should 

 very little expect. Who, without decisive evidence, would believe, 

 that the flesh of an animal which can communicate a fatal infection 

 by mere contact, can be safely eaten by man ! Those of our readers, 

 whose nerves are delicate, may as well pass over this memoir without 

 perusing it, while to those who appreciate curious and useful results, 

 without regarding the pleasantness of the path by which they arrive 

 at them, it will prove a valuable acquisition to their stock of informa- 

 tion. — Editor. 



In many places, the laborious inhabitants of the country carefully 

 gather different remains of little value, such as stubble, leaves and 

 twigs of wood, which they collect in forests for their fuel ; the ma- 

 nure of horses, which they scrape up from the roads to increase 

 their scanty store. They often deprive themselves of part of 

 their own food to raise dogs and cats ; while they allow the greater 

 part of their dead animals to be lost, which they might without much 

 trouble turn to great advantage, either by applying them to their 

 own wants, or selling them to manufactures, who, almost every where 

 in France, are in want of animal materials necessary for their opera- 

 tions. The value of these dead animals, according to the uses to 

 which they may be applied will be much greater than that of many 

 objects which they are accustomed as we have said, to glean with 

 trouble. 



When an animal dies in the country either from disease or accident, 

 they generally hasten to bury it very deeply, thus throwing away all 

 the profit which they might obtain from it. They cherish an aver- 

 sion to their dead carcasses, from the idea, universally prevalent, that 

 they are unwholesome ; that there is danger in approaching and 

 handling them, if they had been ever so little aflected with disease, 

 or the flesh has commenced giving out a little bad odor. Before we 

 point out all the uses to which dead animals may be applied it will 

 be necessary to destroy these false ideas ; we shall doubtless effect 

 this by informing them that none of the numerous individuals em- 

 ployed in different manufactories near large cities, where are slaughter- 

 ed all diseased animals, where are cut up all animals that have died of 

 diseases of any kind (one only excepted, which we shall clearly make 

 known ;) that none of the laborers in work houses where they ma- 

 nipulate with animal matters experience any particular indisposition, 



