The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-07-02
HORSE FL ESH

men for the beef of France which he for his part,
did not find inferior to that OF England 81 have
been two times in Eng land, he remarked, ''but |
nCvcre find the bf so Superieur to ours. l lind 1T
vary convenient that they bring it you on leetle
pieces of stick, for penny, but do not lind the
bif superieur." On hearing this, the Englishman,
red with establishment, exclaimed, Good God, sir!
you have been eating cats meat" 1t is very true
he had been eating cats meat; but had he not at
the same time, been eating meat as succuent, savo-
ry, and wholesome as the marbled beef of which
the Briton is so proud?
Let the resonant shouts of laughter subside lit
tie, and while You wiping the tears from your
eyes, listen to the very serious exposition shall
make of the agreeable and nutritivc qualities of
horseiesh. We are not going to press into the
vice OF our argument the immense mass of evidence
collected by NJ. lsidore Geoffroy St. Hilaref re-
specting the tribes and nations which habitualy
dine off horses; will we lay much ST. css on
the fact that in the Jardn DIES Pantes the carnvo-
ra are habitually fed on hOrsehesh, which keeps
them healthy in spite of many unfavorable condi-
tons The skeptic might not unreasonably ask
whether our digestive power be quite as good as
that of the lion and he would remark that the
condor is known to devour, with RELISH food which
Mr.. Brown would sturdily refuse.
Unhappiy dietetic rules for men can be de
duced from condors and lions! We must rely on
the experience of human stomachs. Nor is this cx-
perience wanting. Without abiding to the ru-
mors which attribute to the Paris rcsaurateurs lib
eral employment Of horse-desh among their flefs de
6eW, NJ. st. Hilaire collects an imposing mass of
eNlucHcc 10 sllOW tnaJ nOfSeS nave been eaten In
abundance, and without suspicion as without evil
consequences. Huzard the celebrated veterinary
surgeon. records that during the revolution the
population OF Paris was fed for six months on horse
flesh.
1t is true that when the beef was known to be
thai of horses, complaints were made; but
IN spite OF the strong prejudices and the terrors
such discovery raised. no single of illness
was attributable to this food. Larrey, the great
army surgeon, declares that on very many occa-
sions during the campaigns. he administered horse
flesh to the soldiers, and, what is more he admin
istered it to the sick in the hospitals Instead of
finding it in furious, he found it powerfully contrib
uted to their convaescence, and drove away a
scorbutic epidemic Other testimony is cited, and
NJ. St Iliaire feels himself abundantly authorized
to declare that horse-esh is as wholesome and nl-
tritious ox-hesh.
Is hOrSe-hesh palatable as it is wholesome Z?
Little will it avail to recount how there are tribes
of hippophagists, or how soldiers during cam
paign, and citizens during siege, have freely ca
ten of the filet de cheva: under such extremities
old shoe has not been despised, which is never
theless, not generally considered toothsome NOR
sci. Feeling the necessity of having this point de-
tinite settled, the advocates of horse-fesh have
given banquets, both in Germany ands France, at
which the comparative merits of horses, cows and
oxen were appreciated.
In 1925, the project of police chose commission
OF eminent men to inquire into the quality Of the
flesh taken from horses which had died, or had been
recently killed. in Paris and its environs. These
commissions all shared the general prejudice; yet
in their report they avowed that eve cannot but
admit this meat to be very good and very savory;
several members of the commission have eaten it,
and could not detect any sensible difference between
it and beef In 1871, hOrse-fesh was openly adopt
ed at Ochssenhausen (what irony in this namely and
Wurtemburg, at both of which places it continues
to be publicly sold, under the surveillance of the
police; and five or six horses weekly brought to
market.
large quantity is also sold at the Lake of Con
stance. In 1912, banquet, at which a hundred
and fifty persons assisted, inaugurated its public
use at Konigsbaden, near STUTTGART. In 1916 the
police of Baden authorized its public sale: and
Schaffhausen followed the example. In 1917 Weim-
err and Detmod witnessed public banquets of the
hippophagistS, which went off with eciat; in kars-
bad and its environs the new beef came into ren-
eral use and at Zittau hundred horses are eaten
annually. The innovation gained ground rapidly,
and the public sale of horse flesh is general in
Austria Bohemia, Saxony, Hanover, Switzerland
and Belgium. In 1858 Berlin counted no less than
five slaughter houses where three hundred and tif-
ty horses were sold. In Vienna, during the same
year, there was riot to prevent Of these ban
quets; yet, in 1854 such progress had been made in
public opinion, that thirty-two thousand pounds
weight were sold in fortnight, and at least
ten thousand of the inhabitants are hppophagsts
These facts are very striking. When we con
sder on the one hand how strong is prejudice, and
on the other, how unreasoning the stomach we
must admit that horse-esh could only gain accept
in virtue of its positive excellence. Nor will
it suffice to meet these facts with Ger
man beef, in comparison with which horse-tieSh
may be supposed to hold no dishonorabe rank; we
have the testimony of men accustomed to the CuJc
de Paris and PhHippe's, invited expressly to pro-
nounce Judgment, and proved, on trial incapable
OF distinguishing hOrse-beef from oXbecf. NJ. Rem
aut, the director of the great veterinary school at
Abort, had horse brought to the establishment
with incurablc paralysis. 1t was killed. and
three days afterwards on the LIST December, 1855,
eleven quests invited to dine off it; they were
physicians, journalists, veterinary surgeons and
employees OF the government.
Side by side were dishes prepared by the same
cook, in precisely similar manner, consisting of
similar parts of the meat from this horse. and from
an OK Of good quality. The horse-soup was Ganked
by an ox-soup the bouWi of horse by JouiHi of
beef the tllet of roast beef by tet of roast horse
The guests unanimously pronounced in favor of the
horse-Soup; the boWiiii, the contrary, they
thought inferior to that of the OK, though superior
! to ordinary beef, decidedly so to cow-bcet.
The roast tillct, again, seemed to them very de-
cidedly in favor of the horse Similar experiments
have been subsequently repeated in Paris and the
provinces. under varying conditions: the guests
have sometimes been informed what they go
| ing to eat; sometimes they have been totally I'M
| suSpecting; and sometimes they have been simply
! told that they were going to eat something quite
novel Yet in every case the result has been the
! same.
1t is on this evidence that NJ. st. Hilare calls
upon the French people to turn their serious atten-
ton to the immense mass of excellent animal food
which lies within their reach, and which they
ally suffer to waste, merely because of an absurd
prejudice. Difficult it may be to overcome a
| prejudice, array of ignorance can prevent the
establishment of truth which is at easily de
monstrable and Immediately beneficial.
Prejudice may reject horse-fesh, as it long re-
iected tea and potatoes, the latter of which, Mon
taigne tells us, excited PestonReneH ct lie degom, but
ha nevertheless become European food. If horses
are eaten, why not donkeys? The Greeks ate don
keys, and we must suppose they had their reasons
for it. Has any modern stomach been courageous
enough try?
Saturday Rerie,c, 9th April, 1856.
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