A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley.

  • Walley, Thomas, 1842-1894.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to its use. Not only prejudice but sentiment also exercises a large share in the national tabooing of horse-flesh as an article of common consumption; and that this is so has been amply proved by my personal experience, and by circumstances which have been brought within my own knowledge. When acting as a prosector in my student days I had occasion, in con- junction with my fellow-prosectors, to dissect the fore limb of a horse whose life had been abruptly terminated by a fracture of one of his legs. After the subject had served the purpose of the lecturer a discussion arose amongst my confreres and myself as to the edible qualities of horse-flesh, and especially as to the suitability of a section of the biceps of this particular subject for gastronomic purposes. A steak was carefully cut and conveyed by myself to my apartments, but I only succeeded in persuading one of my fellows to sup with me, and when the table was spread I halved the steak, and handed my friend B. his share of it. After a critical survey of the dainty morsel he succeeded in swallowing one mouthful, but he never swallowed the second, and it ended in my eating his share in addition to my own : it was only the idea of the thing that troubled him. A year afterwards two veterinary students occupied the same apartments, a horse-flesh supper was partaken of in the early part of their occupation, and as they were liberally inclined, a tolerably large modicum of the dainty morsel was left over and graciously handed to the domestic for her own use, and it was not until the last day of the session, and consequently the last day of their stay in the house, that the hippophagi revealed the secret, and that they became forcibly aware of the fact that the landlady had shared the feast with the servant by the two performing, in the back garden, a duet well known to those who essay for the first time a voyage by sea. When engaged as a pupil, I one day accompanied my preceptor to the stable of a boating contractor, and there examined a grey horse whose years merged into the