Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/429

Rh 9. The bones are sold to cutlers, fan makers, and manufacturers of sal ammoniac and ivory black. A horse yields about 90lbs., which sell for 2s.

10. The smaller intestines are wrought into coarse strings for lathes; the larger are sold as manure.

11. Even the maggots, which are produced in great numbers in the refuse, are not lost. Small pieces of the horse flesh are piled up, about half a foot high; and being covered slightly with straw to protect them from the sun, soon allure the flies, which deposit their eggs in them. In a few days the putrid flesh is converted into a living mass of maggots. These are sold by measure; some are used for bait in fishing, but the greater part as food for fowls, and especially for pheasants. One horse yields maggots which sell for about 1s. 5d.

12. The rats which frequent these establishments are innumerable, and they have been turned to profit by the proprietors. The fresh carcass of a horse is placed at night in a room, which has a number of openings near the floor. The rats are attracted into it, and the openings then closed. 16,000 rats were killed in one room in four weeks, without any perceptible diminution of their number. The furriers purchase the rat skins at about 3s. the hundred.