28 
HIPPOPHAGY (HOUSE-EATING) IN ALGIERS. 
At Algiers, a few days back, a considerable number of 
high public functionaries, superior military officers, judges, 
and clergy, partook in the saloon of the theatre of a grand 
banquet, the greater part of the dishes of which were com¬ 
posed of horse and ass flesh. The object of getting up the 
feast was to combat the popular prejudice against such food. 
The different dishes were dressed in the French style, and 
declared excellent. One of them consisted of a young ass 
roasted whole. After the dinner suitable toasts and speeches 
were delivered. One of the latter was by M. Decroix, vete¬ 
rinary surgeon of the 1st Mounted Chasseurs, w 7 ho maintained 
that horse flesh is very nutritious, and that the general 
adoption of it as an article of food w 7 ould present many adr 
vantages. 
Our readers will remember that a short time since the 
celebrated naturalist Geoffrey St. Hilaire died. He w 7 as the 
founder and president of the Society for the Acclimatization 
of Animals, of Paris; by which many have been added to our 
domestic family. To the last he adyocated the use of horse 
flesh as food, eating thereof himself at public dinners as a 
proof of his sincerity. And why not? In Russia horse flesh, 
it is well known, is always sold in the markets with the flesh 
of other animals as food for the people. 
COUCH-GRASS A REMEDY, AND AS FOOD. 
An infusion of the Triticum repens, couch-grass, in the 
proportion of one ounce of the dried and cut stem to a pint 
of w r ater, and given in the course of the day, has been found 
by Mr. H. Thompson, of the University Hospital, to be very 
beneficial in irritable conditions of the bladder. According 
to him, it is important that the plant should be gathered in 
the spring, shortly before the leaves appear; the stem is then 
to be slowly dried without artificial heat, and cut into the 
requisite lengths for use. 
Professor Burnett, speaking of this grass, says , ce The couch- 
grass of the farmers, which is here regarded as a noisome 
weed, is collected on the continent as food for horses. Cattle 
of all kinds are fond of the underground shoots of this plant, 
which are sweet and wholesome. Sir Humphrey Davy 
found them to contain nearly three times as much nutritious 
