Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/555

 Popular Science Monthly

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��If Beefsteak Is Too Dear, Try a Horse Porterhouse

I'^HINK of buying all the fine meat cuts, from roundsteak to porterhouse, at from six to fifteen cents a pound! It can be done; it is being done. There are Ital- ians, Norwegians, Germans and Swiss in New York who are paying no more than fifteen cents a pound for the choicest steaks. And they are getting meat which for palatability and nutritive value is far above most of the beef tenderloins and sirloins we consume at the prevailing price of thirty-two and thirty- six cents a pound. It is not beef that these wise foreigners are eating, but horse meat.

The very mention of horse flesh is unpleasant — not because one out of a thousand knows what it tastes like, but because we love the horse and therefore dislike to eat him. Yet the horse is perhaps our cleanest ani- mal. He eats clean food , lives in a clean environ- ment, and keeps himself clean. He is practically free from tuberculosis and many other serious diseases to which our flesh-producing animals are subject. Not- withstanding this, however, we continue to make beefsteak a staple food product, despite the exorbitant prices at which it is sold.

The one store in New York city, and the only one in the United States, which is selling horse flesh is doing business under the most favorable conditions. The horses are slaughtered under the supervision of veterinarians of the Department of Health and every precaution is taken to safeguard the consumer. Health inspectors are on hand to convince prospective purchasers of the food value and cleanliness of the meat. Indeed, everything is done to overcome the prejudice against it.

To prevent deceptions, ho other meat may be sold under the same roof with horse meat. To sell it, a butcher must take out a special license. In France and in Germany

���Int. Film Serv.

Cutting up a quarter of horse flesh for two purchasers. The price ranges from six to fifteen cents a p>ound

The only horseflesh store in the country. The Department of Health supervises the slaughtering and shops

horse meat shops have been in business for years. Outside the French shop hangs a horse's head as the trade sign. According to those who have eaten it, some knowing- ly and some unknowingly, horse flesh resembles beef in taste, only it is sweeter.

��The Military Dentist Is No Longer a Luxury But a Necessity

Until the Canadian troops reached Eng- land with their well-equipped base hospi- tals and dental units, the British looked upon the military dentist as a luxury. Now the military dentist is put on a par with the veterinary surgeon. Even in Australia, where the military authorities were slowest to appreciate the value of dental hygiene, army dentists are now <loing a splendid work. According to a Melbourne paper, operations numbering twenty-five thousand have been performed, and more than ten thousand teeth have been saved.

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