760 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



gether alimentary — 3n Africa, America, Asia, 

 and some parts of Europe. 



"Its flesh is relished by people the most 

 different in their manner of life, and of race the 

 most diverse — negro, Mongol, Malay, Ameri- 

 can, Caucasian. It was much esteemed up 

 to the eighteenth century among the ances- 

 tors of some of the greatest nations of wes- 

 tern Europe, who had it in general use, and 

 &ave it up with regret. Soldiers to whom it 

 had been served out,, and people in towns who 

 have bought it in markets, have frequently 

 taken it for beef. Still more often, and indeed 

 habitually, it has been sold in resturants, even 

 in the best, as venison, and without the cus- 

 tomers even suspecting the fraud or complain- 

 ing of it. 



" And farther, if horse-flesh has been often 

 accepted as good under a false name, it has 

 also been pronounced good by those who, to 

 judge of its qualities, have submitted it to 

 careful experiment, and by all who have tasted 

 it in proper condition — that it is, when taken 

 from a sound and rested horse, and kept 

 sufficiently long. It is then excellent roasted; 

 and if it be not so acceptable as bouilli, it is 

 precisely because it furnishes one of the best 

 soups — perhaps the best that is known. It is 

 good also, as experiments prove, made by my- 

 self, as well as others, when taken from old 

 horses, not fattened, whose age was six- 

 teen, nineteen, twenty,' and even twenty-three 

 years — animals thought to be worth no more 

 than a few francs beyond the value of ^oil- 

 skin. This is a capital fact, since it shows the 

 possibility of utilizing a second time, for their 

 flesh, horses which have already been utilized 

 up to old age for the strength; and consequently, 

 of obtaining a further and almost gratuitous 

 profit at the end of their life, after they had 

 well nigh paid the cost of their rearing and 

 keep by their labor.'' 



So much for the great champion of horse- 

 flesh. 



Having disposed of the flesh, we come next to 

 the blood, heart and tongue, weighing about 60 

 lbs. The former is used, .like the blood of other 

 animals, as a deeolorizer, for manure, and for 

 making, with other animal substances, the well 

 known salt, prussiate poteish. The disposal of 

 the heart and tongue we will say nothing about, 

 as there is somewhat of a mystery resting 

 upon their appropriation. 



The intestines of the horse, weighing about 

 80 lbs., are converted to several uses. When 

 cleaned, they serve for covering bolonies and 

 sausages ; or they are twisted into bands or 

 strings for bowing cotton, or for other purposes. 



There is seldom much fat to be got from the 

 horse: probably about 20 lbs. may be ob- 

 tained; and this is used, after being distilled, 

 for lamps. We import horse grease largely 

 from the River Plate, but we get better at 

 home. The grease is also worked up by the 

 soap and candle-makers in common with other 



fats, while the entrails and remnants are given 

 to hogs, to make food for home consumption — 

 at least this is so in the United States, where 

 the porcine race are less daintily fed than our 

 own store-fed pigs. 



The bones come next; and these weigh, say 

 about 160 lbs., and are sold at the rate of 4s. 

 6d. per cwt., either to convert into knife- 

 handles, or for making phosphorus, and super- 

 phosphate of lime. They will not do for ani- 

 mal charcoal, because horses being usually 

 killed when aged, the bones contain too great 

 a proportion of phosphate of lime, and too 

 little animal matter. Ground into dust, or 

 crushed into half-inch bone, they make excel- 

 lent manure; while other special manures for 

 turnips, &c, are made from the blood, flesh 

 and bones combined. 



The Kensington Museum catalogue, com- 

 piled by Mr. P. L. Simmonds, lets us into the 

 secret of cleaning the bones and divesting 

 them of putrid flesh, &c., so as fit to them for use 

 in manufactures. To take off the flesh by 

 hand is a tedious and difficult operation. An 

 ingenious Frenchman solved the difficulty, 

 lie noticed that rats were very fond of horse 

 flesh ; so are fowls — other arguments in favor 

 of M. St. Hilaire's reasoning of the wholesome- 

 ness of the food. Our Frenchman advised the 

 authorities to colonize the dead horse-pound 

 with rats. This common pound is an enclosed 

 area of about ten acres, surrounded by a stone 

 wall, to which all carcases, &c, are taken, and 

 among the rest the 400 horses which die or are 

 killed in a week in Paris. The catacombs fur- 

 nished rats by thousands ; and now a dead horse 

 put in over night is picked beautifully clean by 

 morning, and the bones are ready for the bone- 

 dealer. A grand battle is periodically made, 

 to keep under the rats, and they are utilized 

 by making the skins into gloves, and possibly 

 their flesh into ragouts or pies. We have 

 nearly done with the economic uses ef the 

 worn-out hack ; there remain but his pedal ex- 

 tremities to deal with. The hoofs, weighing 

 about 8 lbs., are worth 8s. to 10s. per cwt. for 

 gelatine, or for making prussiates. They are 

 not adapted to pressing into the so-called horn 

 buttons, which are made of ox-hoofs, but pos- 

 sibly may turn up in the shape of a snuff-box, 

 capped with silver. The shoes will work up 

 into shoes again, or sell for old iron ; and the 

 nails are much esteemed for making gun bar- 

 rels. 



We have now used up our " old horse/' and 

 this is merely the example of many other ani- 

 mals whose carcases are turned or might be 

 turned to various useful purposes. Such a his- 

 tory points a moral that nothing should be 

 despised, for out of many waste substances 

 money is to be made, and the large profits of 

 scavengers, knuckers, and the dust contractor, 

 are evidences of the utilization of offal and 

 sweepings. — Lecture of Dr. Play fair on Refuse 

 Animal Matter. 



