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QUADRUPEDS.
CHAPTER XII.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS.
585. BY THE GENERAL ASSENT OF MANKIND, THE EMPIRE
OF NATURE has been divided into three kingdoms; the first consisting of
minerals, the second of vegetables, and the third of animals. The Mineral
Kingdom comprises all substances which are without those organs necessary to
locomotion, and the due performance of the functions of life. They are composed
of the accidental aggregation of particles, which, under certain circumstances,
take a constant and regular figure, but which are more frequently found without
any definite conformation. They also occupy the interior parts of the earth, as
well as compose those huge masses by which we see the land in some parts guarded
against the encroachments of the sea. The Vegetable Kingdom covers and
beautifies the earth with an endless variety of form and colour. It consists of
organized bodies, but destitute of the power of locomotion. They are nourished
by means of roots; they breathe by means of leaves; and propagate by means of
seed, dispersed within certain limits. The Animal Kingdom consists of sentient
beings, that enliven the external parts of the earth. They possess the powers of
voluntary motion, respire air, and are forced into action by the cravings of
hunger or the parching of thirst, by the instincts of animal passion, or by
pain. Like the vegetable kingdom, they are limited within the boundaries of
certain countries by the conditions of climate and soil; and some of the species
prey upon each other. Linnaeus has divided them into six classes;--Mammalia,
Birds, Fishes, Amphibious Animals, Insects, and Worms. The three latter do not
come within the limits of our domain; of fishes we have already treated, of
birds we shall treat, and of mammalia we will now treat.
586. THIS CLASS OF ANIMALS embraces all those
that nourish their young by means of lacteal glands, or teats, and are so
constituted as to have a warm or red blood. In it the whale is placed,--an order
which, from external habits, has usually been classed with the fishes; but,
although this animal exclusively inhabits the water, and is supplied with fins,
it nevertheless exhibits a striking alliance to quadrupeds. It has warm blood,
and produces its young alive; it nourishes them with milk, and, for that
purpose, is furnished with teats. It is also supplied with lungs, and two
auricles and two ventricles to the heart; all of which bring it still closer
into an alliance with the quadrupedal species of the animal kingdom.
587. THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAMMALIA
have been frequently noticed. The bodies of nearly the whole species are covered
with hair, a kind of clothing which is both soft and warm, little liable to
injury, and bestowed in proportion to the necessities of the animal and the
nature of the climate it inhabits. In all the higher orders of animals, the head
is the principal seat of the organs of sense. It is there that the eyes, the
ears, the nose, and the mouth are placed. Through the last they receive their
nourishment. In it are the teeth, which, in most of the mammalia, are
used not only for the mastication of food, but as weapons of offence. They are
inserted into two movable bones called jaws, and the front teeth are so placed
that their sharp edges may easily be brought in contact with their food, in
order that its fibres may readily be separated. Next to these, on each side, are
situated the canine teeth, or tusks, which are longer than the other teeth, and,
being pointed, are used to tear the food. In the back jaws are placed another
form of teeth, called grinders. These are for masticating the food; and in those
animals that live on vegetables, they are flattened at the top; but, in
carnivora, their upper surfaces are furnished with sharp-pointed protuberances.
From the numbers, form, and disposition of the teeth, the various genera of
quadrupeds have been arranged. The nose is a cartilaginous body, pierced
with two holes, which are called nostrils. Through these the animal is affected
by the sense of smell; and in some it is prominent, whilst in others it is flat,
compressed, turned upwards, or bent downwards. In beasts of prey, it is
frequently longer than the lips; and in some other animals it is elongated into
a movable trunk or proboscis, whilst, in the rhinoceros tribe, it is armed with
a horn. The eyes of quadrupeds are generally defended by movable lids, on
the outer margins of which are fringes of hair, called eyelashes. The opening of
the pupil is in general circular; but to some species, as in those of the Cat
and Hare, it is contracted into a perpendicular line, whilst in the Horse, the
Ox, and a few others, it forms a transverse bar. The ears are openings,
generally accompanied with a cartilage which defends and covers them, called the
external ears. In water-animals the latter are wanting; sound, in them, being
transmitted merely through orifices in the head, which have the name of
auditory-holes. The most defenceless animals are extremely delicate in the sense
of hearing, as are likewise most beasts of prey. Most of the mammiferous animals
walk on four feet, which, at the extremities, are usually divided into
toes or fingers. In some, however, the feet end in a single corneous substance
called a hoof. The toes of a few end in broad, flat nails, and of most others,
in pointed claws. Some, again, have the toes connected by a membrane, which is
adapted to those that are destined to pass a considerable portion of their lives
in water. Others, again, as in the Bat, have the digitations of the anterior
feet greatly elongated, the intervening space being filled by a membrane, which
extends round the hinder legs and tail, and by means of which they are enabled
to rise into the air. In Man, the hand alone comprises fingers, separate, free,
and flexible; but Apes, and some other kinds of animals, have fingers both to
the hands and feet. These, therefore, are the only animals that can hold movable
objects in a single hand. Others, such as Rats and Squirrels, have the fingers
sufficiently small and flexible to enable them to pick up objects; but they are
compelled to hold them in both hands. Others, again, have the toes shorter, and
must rest on the fore-feet, as is the case with dogs and cats when they wish to
hold a substance firmly on the ground with their paws. There are still others
that have their toes united and drawn under the skin, or enveloped in corneous
hoofs, and are thereby enabled to exercise no prehensile power whatever.
588. ACCORDING TO THE DESIGN AND END OF NATURE,
mammiferous animals are calculated, when arrived at maturity, to subsist on
various kinds of food,--some to live wholly upon flesh, others upon grain,
herbs, or fruits; but in their infant state, milk is the appropriate food of the
whole. That this food may never fail them, it is universally ordained, that the
young should no sooner come into the world, than the milk should flow in
abundance into the members with which the mother is supplied for the secretion
of that nutritious fluid. By a wonderful instinct of Nature, too, the young
animal, almost as soon as it has come into life, searches for the teat, and
knows perfectly, at the first, how, by the process of suction, it will be able
to extract the fluid necessary to its existence.
589. IN THE GENERAL ECONOMY OF NATURE, this class
of animals seems destined to preserve a constant equilibrium in the number of
animated beings that hold their existence on the surface of the earth. To man
they are immediately useful in various ways. Some of their bodies afford him
food, their skin shoes, and their fleece clothes. Some of them unite with him in
participating the dangers of combat with an enemy, and others assist him in the
chase, in exterminating wilder sorts, or banishing them from the haunts of
civilization. Many, indeed, are injurious to him; but most of them, in some
shape or other, he turns to his service. Of these there is none he has made more
subservient to his purposes than the common ox, of which there is scarcely a
part that he has not been able to convert into some useful purpose. Of the horns
he makes drinking-vessels, knife-handles, combs, and boxes; and when they are
softened by means of boiling water, he fashions them into transparent plates for
lanterns. This invention is ascribed to King Alfred, who is said to have been
the first to use them to preserve his candle time-measures from the wind. Glue
is made of the cartilages, gristles, and the finer pieces of the parings and
cuttings of the hides. Their bone is a cheap substitute for ivory. The thinnest
of the calf-skins are manufactured into vellum. Their blood is made the basis of
Prussian blue, and saddlers use a fine sort of thread prepared from their
sinews. The hair is used in various valuable manufactures; the suet, fat, and
tallow, are moulded into candles; and the milk and cream of the cow yield butter
and cheese. Thus is every part of this animal valuable to man, who has spared no
pains to bring it to the highest state of perfection.
590. AMONG THE VARIOUS BREEDS OF THE OX, upon
which man has bestowed his highest powers of culture, there is now none takes a
higher place than that known by the name of Short-Horns. From the earliest ages,
Great Britain has been distinguished for the excellence of her native breeds of
cattle, and there are none in England that have obtained greater celebrity than
those which have this name, and which originated, about seventy years ago, on
the banks of the Tees. Thence they have spread into the valleys of the Tweed;
thence to the Lothians, in Scotland; and southward, into the fine pastures of
England. They are now esteemed the most profitable breed of cattle, as there is
no animal which attains sooner to maturity, and none that supplies meat of a
superior quality. The value of some of the improved breeds is something
enormous. At the sale of Mr. Charles Colling, a breeder in Yorkshire, in 1810,
his bull "Comet" sold for 1,000 guineas. At the sale of Earl Spencer's
herd in 1846, 104 cows, heifers, and calves, with nineteen bulls, fetched £8,468.
5s.; being an average of £68. 17s. apiece. The value of such animals is
scarcely to be estimated by those who are unacquainted with the care with which
they are tended, and with the anxious attention which is paid to the purity of
their breed. A modern writer, well acquainted with this subject, says,
"There are now, at least, five hundred herds, large and small, in this
kingdom, and from six to seven thousand head registered every alternate year in
the herd-book." The necessity for thus recording the breeds is greater than
might, at first sight, be imagined, as it tends directly to preserve the
character of the cattle, while it sometimes adds to the value and reputation of
the animal thus entered. Besides, many of the Americans, and large purchasers
for the foreign market, will not look at an animal without the breeder has taken
care to qualify him for such reference. Of short-horned stock, there is annually
sold from £40,000 to £50,000 worth by public auction, independent of the vast
numbers disposed of by private contract. The brood is highly prized in Belgium,
Prussia, France, Italy, and Russia; it is imported into most of the British
colonies, and is greatly esteemed both for its meat and its dairy produce,
wherever it is known. The quickness with which it takes on flesh, and the weight
which it frequently makes, are well known; but we may mention that it is not
uncommon to tee steers of from four to five years old realize a weight of from
800 to 1,000 lbs. Such animals command from the butcher from £30 to £40 per
head, according to the quality; whilst others, of
591. LONG-HORNS.--This is the prevailing breed in
our midland counties and in Ireland; but they are greatly inferior to the
short-horns, and are fast being supplanted by them. Even where they have been
cultivated with the nicest care and brought to the greatest perfection, they are
inferior to the others, and must ultimately be driven from the farm.
592. THE ALDERNEY.--Among the dairy breeds of
England, the Alderney takes a prominent place, not on account of the quantity of
milk which it yields, but on account of the excellent quality of the cream and
butter which are produced from it. Its docility is marvellous, and in appearance
it greatly resembles the Ayrshire breed of Scotland, the excellence of which is
supposed to be, in some degree, derived from a mixture of the Alderney blood
with that breed. The distinction between them, however, lies both in the
quantity and quality of the milk which they severally produce; that of the
Alderney being rich in quality, and that of the Ayrshire abundant in quantity.
The merit of the former, however, ends with its milk, for as a grazer it is
worthless.
593. SCOTTISH BREEDS.--Of these the Kyloe, which
belongs to the Highlands of Scotland; the Galloway, which has been called the
Kyloe without horns; and the Ayrshire, are the breeds most celebrated. The first
has kept his place, and on account of the compactness of his form, and the
excellent quality of his flesh, he is a great favourite with butchers who have a
select family trade. It is alike unsuitable for the dairy and the arable farm;
but in its native Highlands it attains to great perfection, thriving upon the
scanty and coarse herbage which it gathers on the sides of the mountains. The
Galloway has a larger frame, and when fattened makes excellent beef. But it has
given place to the short-horns in its native district, where turnip-husbandry is
pursued with advantage. The Ayrshire is peculiarly adapted for the dairy, and
for the abundance of its milk cannot be surpassed in its native district. In
this it stands unrivalled, and there is no other breed capable of converting the
produce of a poor soil into such fine butter and cheese. It is difficult to
fatten, however, and its beef is of a coarse quality. We have chosen these as
among the principal representative breeds of the ox species; but there are other
breeds which, at all events, have a local if not a general celebrity.
594. The general Mode of Slaughtering Oxen in
this country is by striking them a smart blow with a hammer or poleaxe on the
head, a little above the eyes. By this means, when the blow is skilfully given,
the beast is brought down at one blow, and, to prevent recovery, a cane is
generally inserted, by which the spinal cord is perforated, which instantly
deprives the ox of all sensation of pain. In Spain, and some other countries on
the continent, it is also usual to deprive oxen of life by the operation of
pithing or dividing the spinal cord in the neck, close to the back part of the
head. This is, in effect, the same mode as is practised in the celebrated
Spanish bull-fights by the matador, and it is instantaneous in depriving the
animal of sensation, if the operator be skilful. We hope and believe that those
men whose disagreeable duty it is to slaughter the "beasts of the
field" to provide meat for mankind, inflict as little punishment and cause
as little suffering as possible.
595. THE MANNER IN WHICH A SIDE OF BEEF is cut up
in London, is shown in the engraving on this page. In the metropolis, on account
of the large number of its population possessing the means to indulge in the
"best of everything," the demand for the most delicate joints of meat
is great, the price, at the same time, being much higher for these than for the
other parts. The consequence is, that in London the carcass is there divided so
as to obtain the greatest quantity of meat on the most esteemed joints. In many
places, however, where, from a greater equality in the social condition and
habits of the inhabitants, the demand and prices for the different parts of the
carcasses are more equalized, there is not the same reason for the butcher to
cut the best joints so large.
596. THE MEAT ON THOSE PARTS OF THE ANIMAL in
which the muscles are least called into action, is most tender and succulent;
as, for instance, along the back, from the rump to the hinder part of the
shoulder; whilst the limbs, shoulder, and neck, are the toughest, driest, and
least-esteemed.
597. THE NAMES OF THE SEVERAL JOINTS in the hind
and fore quarters of a side of beef, and the purposes for which they are used,
are as follows:--
HIND QUARTER.
1. Sirloin.--The two sirloins, cut together in one
joint, form a baron; this, when roasted, is the famous national dish of
Englishmen, at entertainments, on occasion of rejoicing.
2. Rump,--the finest part for steaks.
3. Aitch-bone,--boiling piece.
4. Buttock,--prime boiling piece.
5. Mouse-round,--boiling or stewing.
6. Hock,--stewing.
7. Thick flank, cut with the udder-fat,--primest boiling
piece.
8. Thin flank,--boiling.
FORE QUARTER.
9. Five ribs, called the fore-rib.--This is considered
the primest roasting piece.
10. Four ribs, called the middle-rib,--greatly esteemed
by housekeepers as the most economical joint for roasting.
11. Two ribs, called the chuck-rib,--used for second
quality of steaks.
12. Leg-of-mutton piece,--the muscles of the shoulder
dissected from the breast.
13. Brisket, or breast,--used for boiling, after being
salted.
14. Neck, clod, and sticking-piece,--used for soups,
gravies, stocks, pies, and mincing for sausages.
15. Shin,--stewing.
The following is a classification of the qualities of
meat, according to the several joints of beef, when cut up in the London manner.
First class.--includes the sirloin, with the
kidney suet (1), the rump-steak piece (2), the fore-rib (9).
Second class.--The buttock (4), the thick flank
(7), the middle-rib (10).
Third class.--The aitch-bone (3), the mouse-round
(5), the thin flank (8), the chuck (11), the leg-of-mutton piece (12), the
brisket (13).
Fourth class.--The neck, clod, and sticking-piece
(14).
Fifth class.--The hock (6), the shin (15).