HORSEFLESH AS FOOD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 211, 22 September 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

HORSEFLESH AS FOOD.

On July \) —just 50 years ago—the first "hippophagic lmtcher" opened a shop n Paris. Horseflesli had, ot cours: l , of course, often been eaten by civilians and soldiers alike during sieges, etc., but the meat had never been really popularised. The idea that a valuable supplementary supply of cheap meat for the working classes could thus be secured induced many leading Frenchmen to favour the movement, and the celebrated zoologist, Geoffrey St. Hilaire, presided at a banquet held in 18GG to further the movement. Probably few who were then present realised how shortly they would be compelled to adopt the food the,.' had proposed. Some 1,000 to 1,500 horses were, it is true, slaughtered and eaten yearly iu Paris in 186G-70, but when Paiis was besieged in 1870-1 'io less than 60.000 animals were thus consumed, and patient crowds awaited daily outside the butchers for a meagre daily ration of horse-flesh. Some—Vic. tor Hugo among others—could never digest it, but on the whole it was not unpopular, and ever since the war the "hippophagic butcher," with the gilt. horsehead replacing the usual busts o l oxen on the shop-front, has been a regular feature of the poorer neighbou - hoods of Par's.