460 
USE OE HORSEFLESH FOR FOOD. 
In the present year, M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire has devoted 
a part of his course in the Museum of Natural History in 
Paris to the consideration of applied zoology. Among the 
questions treated of, has been that of the consumption of 
horseflesh. Almost all our auxiliary animals at the same 
time furnish food ; and this is easily understood ; man, in 
multiplying these animals, creates at the same time a great 
mass of power and a large quantity of alimentary material ; 
and he is led to avail himself of the latter when the former 
fails or becomes useless. 
Why, then, does not the horse, a large animal, and the 
most extensively multiplied of our auxiliary quadrupeds, also 
furnish food ? Like all herbivora, the horse produces an 
eatable flesh, rich in nitrogen, wholesome, and far from dis- 
agreeable to the taste. 
Baron de Tott relates, that having been sent as an ambas- 
sador from the king of France to the Khan of Tartary, he 
was in the latter country entertained with an excellent meal 
of horseflesh. [The use of horseflesh as an article of food 
by the Tartars is a w r ell-knowm fact.] 
M. Huzard, a veterinary surgeon, relates that in 1789, the 
Parisians ate horseflesh during three months, and that the 
public health did not suffer in the least. 
Baron Larrey, the celebrated military surgeon, says that 
horseflesh is very convenient as food for man ; it seemed to 
him especially nutritious. He often saw it used, and with 
the greatest advantage, by the soldiers and the wounded of 
the French army. During the seige of Alexandria in Egypt, 
in order to overcome the repugnance of the soldiers to thi-s 
article of diet, he killed his own horses, and used them as 
food. 
MM. Cadet, Parmentier, Pariset, and Parent-Duchatelet, 
have also reported favorably on the qualities of horseflesh. 
Our repugnance to horseflesh arises simply from our long- 
having ceased to use it. Anciently, both the horse and tlie 
ass were employed as articles of food. The use of horseflesh 
was at one time general among the inhabitants of the north 
and west of Europe. The reason for its disuse is thus given 
by M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. 
The worshippers of Odin used the horse in sacrifice. 
When the animal was sacrificed, the flesh was served up on 
the tables of the priests and of all classes of the population. 
The eating of horseflesh was thus connected with the rites of 
