FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 103 



food took place in Paris under the patronage of the 

 *' Society for Promoting the Use of Horseflesh," the con- 

 sumption of this meat has been steadily increasing. 

 About 66,000 horses were slain in Paris in 1871 to fur- 

 nish food during the siege of the city by the Germans. 



The piece de resistance then was curried horseflesh, or 

 a cat's thigh, strong with garlic. The distaste for horse- 

 flesh among the besieged led to the invention of many 

 bouquets of garlic, peppercorns, cloves, coriander, and 

 ginger to impart a pleasant flavour to the insipid meat. 



According to M. Decroix's full statistical tables pub- 

 lished in the " Bulletin of the Society of Acclimatation," 

 for February, 1873, p. 98, there had been slaughtered in 

 Paris from the opening of the first horse-butcher's shop, 

 in July, 1866, to the end of December, 1872, 83,071 

 equine animals for food, yielding a net weight of over 

 34^ million pounds of meat. The net weight of meat he 

 calculated at 418 lbs. for horses and mules, and 110 lbs. 

 for asses, not including the ofial, liver, heart, tongue, 

 brains, etc., which are sold like those of oxen. 



In 1875 the horse butcheries of Paris furnished for 

 public consumption 6,865 horses, asses, and mules ; in 

 1876 they supplied 9,271, giving over 3,700,000 lbs. of 

 meat., At Lyons the number killed for food in the two 

 years 1875 and 1876, was 2,350. There are sixty horse 

 butcheries in Paris, and seven in Lyons. 



At Marseilles there were slaughtered at the horse 

 butchery in 1881, 321 donkeys, which were chiefly con- 

 sumed in the town, and in the first three months of 1882, 

 182 horses, 140 mules, and 113 asses were killed for 

 food. 



Some very interesting statistics have been published 

 by the Society for promoting the use of horsefiesh and 

 the flesh of asses and mules as food, showing how steadily 

 the consumption of these articles of diet has been in- 

 creasing in Paris and the provinces since the foundation 

 of the society in July, 1866. These show that 160,080 

 horses, 6,690 donkeys, and 395 mules, had been sold in 

 Paris alone for food up to the end of 1881, furnishing 



