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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    thirties, and who was suffering from a fractured limb. The horse was condemned to be shot, and he was purchased by a company of carrion butchers, who conveyed him to the neighbouring town, where his carcase was dressed and prepared in the same manner as is usually practised in the case of the ox. Subsequently, one or two members of the fraternity expressed, while carousing with their mates in the bar parlour of an inn, a desire for something substantial to eat. They were recommended by those of their companions who were in the secret to go to the slaughter- house and cut off some steaks from the hind quarters of O 's ox. This they did with alacrity, and after the same had been cooked, with a liberal addition of onions, by an obliging land- lady, they were devoured with great gusto; but the tables were turned when the gourmands were quietly informed, a short time after their feast, that they had been eating steaks cut from the body of Steamer, the oldest horse on the tow-path. In marked contrast to these comical experiences are those banquets which have from time to time been given to the more intelligent portion of the community by gentlemen interested in the horse and his uses ;* but even in the case of these men of cultured taste their first effort to swallow the dishes prepared by the horsey cook have been more remarkable for wry-facedness than for gustatory appreciativeness or relish. Perhaps, after all, the same argument as that which is applicable to diseased or doubtful ox or other flesh may be employed here, viz., why should that which is unpalatable be eaten, when that which is agreeable to the taste can be had for the same, or nearly the same price ? That horse-flesh is largely sold in this country for the purposes of human food is a well established fact, and personally I see no * E.g., the banquet given a few years ago by Mr. B. Cartledge, F.R.C.V.S., at Sheffield.