WHAT A DEAD HORSE IS WORTH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 17, 20 May 1871, Page 8

WHAT A DEAD HORSE IS WORTH.

A liorse must be a remarkably good one if he is worth as much when alive as he is to the retorts and kettles of the chemist. As soon as the liorse is dead, his blood is sought by the manufacturers of albumen, and by sugar refiners and the burners of lampblack. Not a drop is allowed to go to waste. The mane and all are wanted for haircloth, sieves, bowstrings, and brushes. The skin is converted into leather for cart-harness, for boots and shoes, and strong collars. The hoofs are used for combs, hornwork, glue, and in old times were the chief source of hartshorn, now obtained from the gas house. The flesh is boiled down in the rendering vat, and much oil and fat is obtained from it. Somo of the choice bits may find their way into cheap restaurants, and play the part of beefsteak, or help to enrich the hasty plates of soup of these establishments. The flesh left after all has been extracted from it that is of any service is sometimes burned, to be used as manure, or is worked up into nitrogenous compounds, such as the pyanides, to be used by the photographer in taking our pictures. The stomach and intestines make valuable strings and chords for musical instruments, and out of the bones so many useful articles are manufactured that it is almost impossible to make out a complete list of them ; amongst them are buttons toys, tweezers, knife handles, rulers, cups,

dominoes, balls ; and the residue from all things is burned into bone-black to be used by the sugar refiner, who puts in a second claim on the dead horse; and some part of the backbone is burned white, to be used by the assayer in testing gold, and, when the assayer and refiner have finished with it, it is converted into superphosphate to serve as a valuable manure on our land. The teeth are used as substitutes for ivory, and the iron shoes, if not nailed over the door to insure good fortune to the household, are worked up into excellent wrought metal. Some portion of the bone black is converted into pliospherous for the manufacture of matches; and lately a valuable bread preparation is made of the phosphate, and medicines are prepared for the cure of consumptives. American.”