water, individual towels, and soap from a holder, are essential. Toilets should be equipped with automatic flushes, so as to avoid a series of constant contacts. Washing facilities should be readily accessible in conjunction with toilet facilities.

2. Food should be protected from animal contamination by at least a two foot elevation from the floor.

3. Receptacles with covers should be provided for rubbish and garbage, satisfactory arrangements being made for emptying and cleaning, and the rules of the market should prohibit the accumulation of refuse.

4. Adequate refrigeration is essential. This applies to storage refrigeration facilities in conjunction with the market, and to special refrigeration for local stall ice boxes, or for enclosed display cases. The proper draining of ice boxes, especially where ice is used for refrigeration, is required by practically all market codes.

5. The laws regarding spitting should be strictly enforced.

6. Most municipal ordinances require that food establishments should be properly screened from flies during the fly season. In addition, it is usually required, to quote the sanitary code of New York City, that "no food intended for human consumption should be kept, sold, offered for sale, displayed, or transported unless protected from dust, dirt, flies, and other contamination." This is usually interpreted to apply particularly to foods eaten without being cooked or peeled.

7. Efficient janitorial service, with an arrangement with the stall occupants for cleaning, is necessary, if decency is to be maintained in large markets.

8. Public markets, particularly when under municipal control, should take advantage of every opportunity, by the use of posters, placards, and leaflets, for the education of the public regarding the dangers of food infection as a result of unnecessary handling, the risk in promiscuous coughing and sneezing, and other dangers.

D. THE BUILDING

1. Adequate light and ventilation are not only necessary for the physical welfare of the employees, but are, of course, tremendous instruments in the maintenance of cleanliness and in increasing the commercial attractiveness of the market.

2. Floors should be impervious, water proof, properly drained, and maintained in cleanly condition.

3. A plentiful water supply for flushing and other general purposes is absolutely necessary to market operation. Incidentally, in this connection, drinking fountains should be provided for employees and patrons.

E. ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL

It would seem, judging from experience in many American and foreign cities, that a concentration of authority and responsibility is an asset as far as the operation of municipal markets is concerned. This implies the establishment of a market department, or at least of a market division in an existing department. The necessity for coördination in this field was most strikingly illustrated by the administrative situation arising subsequent to the establishment of the temporary curb markets in New York City, a year or more ago. While these markets were established by the Borough President's office, on street area under the control of that office, a superficial survey of the diffusion of responsibility indicated that, in addition to the Borough President's office, there were also concerned, from diverse points of view, the Department of Health, the Department of Street Cleaning, the Department of Water Supply, the Department of Docks and Ferries, the Bureau of Licenses, and the Department of Police. Certainly, if New York City is to take further steps in the direction of municipal market development, a concentration of authority is essential.

From the point of view of sanitary control, there can be no doubt that responsibility should rest with one office, rather than be distributed as was the case in New York City, where the Health Department inspectors were supposed to enforce the rule regarding food protection, the Street Cleaning Department provided janitorial service of a kind, and the Borough President's office was responsible for cleanliness as regards the toilet facilities.

Historically, most cities attempting to deal with the necessity for municipal retail markets have paid some attention to the economic aspects of the situation, have attempted to control prices in a greater or less degree, but have, to a large extent, ignored the necessities for special sanitary regulations and particularly for specific educational measures in food hygiene. The markets of Philadelphia and Baltimore,2

A new municipal market is now in process of construction in Baltimore. This should afford an opportunity to carry out the suggestions made by Dr. Armstrong.

while attractive structures, and while apparently serving a useful purpose, by no means take full advantage of the opportunities for food control and food education. In this field, so far as the observations of the author are concerned, the City of Cleveland is unique. The Euclid Avenue Market in Cleveland, in addition to being a model establishment from the point of view of construction, light, ventilation, refrigeration, food protection, toilet, and hand washing facilities, has taken advantage of many opportunities for education of the consumer, along the lines of food sanitation. Of course, even in this market much remains that could be done in increasing popular knowledge regarding food selection, the economies of food purchasing, and the essentials of food care in the home.

In conclusion, it cannot, perhaps, be too forcibly emphasized that, in modern public health work and particularly in the field of food sanitation, we are at the point where we are ready to drop the word "public" and to talk primarily about health. Paradoxical as it may be, the keynote of modern sanitation, and especially food sanitation, is personal hygiene. This means personal cleanliness. From the point of view of disease prevention, it is undoubtedly of much greater importance for any city to teach its food handlers to wash their hands after leaving the toilet, than it is for that city to solve its sewage disposal problem even though it may maintain an indecent and unesthetic crude disposal by river dilution. From a health point of view, public market and food store control, while it must be founded on a sound, sanitary basis, is to be effected essentially through a program of personal hygiene. If eventually municipalities would meet the responsibility of having this program of personal food hygiene include, not only the infection preventive and disease suppressive factors of food protection, but also the positive, health creative, educational factors of dietary food selection, the markets would then be utilized to something like their full potentiality as creative, social forces.

PRACTICABLE WAYS OF INCREASING THE IRON-CONTENT

OF THE DIET1

CAROLINE L. HUNT

Scientific Assistant, Office of Home Economics, States Relations Service, United States Depariment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

This paper does not deal with iron metabolism nor with the comparative availabilities of the iron compounds present in different food materials. Nor is it its purpose to recommend that a greater effort be made to introduce iron into the diet. It simply brings together a few recipes for iron-rich dishes which were used by the writer while, for experimental purposes, she was living on a special ration containing very little fat, and was at the same time trying to keep up the iron content of her food in the hope of avoiding the anaemic condition which sometimes follows the use of certain special diets.

The ration, which is of interest here only as showing how a large amount of iron can be crowded into a low calorie diet, consisted of ten food materials only. It was taken for nine days during which about 4 pounds in weight were lost and was then abandoned, not because it proved unpalatable or monotonous, but because of the inconvenience that always attends the preparation and use of special diets, and because there was no longer reason to continue it for experimental purposes.

The experiment was unaccompanied by blood tests or by analyses of undigested residues. Its only value, therefore, lies in suggesting practicable iron-rich rations for use in experiments on iron metabolism. In the absence, too, of any exact information about the fate in the body of the iron compounds of food it may possibly be useful in preventing or overcoming anaemia. The dishes of which it was composed include soups, meats, sauces, and desserts. These may be used together to form a diet exceptionally rich in iron or may be introduced from time to time into an ordinary diet to insure a little extra supply.

The following table gives the food materials used, the iron per 100 calorie portion, the amount of each eaten per day, and the iron provided by each:

1 Presented at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Home Economics Association, Ithaca, 1916.

milli

It will be noticed that the diet had a fuel value of less than 1900 calories and contained about 30 milligrams of iron or about 1 grams per 100 calorie portion, as distinguished from milligram in the ordinary mixed diet. In order that the ration might in spite of these facts provide sufficient protein and also be sufficiently fat and sweet to be palatable the food materials were selected from the following groups, which are represented in all well-chosen diets.

Group 1. Those in which protein provides a larger percentage of the fuel than it does in the diet as a whole. These include milk, cheese, eggs, and most of the flesh foods.

Group 2. Those in which fat provides a larger percentage of the fuel than it does in the diet as a whole. These include butter, cream, oil, fat meats, and egg-yolks.

Group 3. Those in which starch provides a larger percentage of the fuel than it does in the diet as a whole. These include cereals and potatoes.

Group 4. Those in which sugar provides a larger percentage of the fuel than it does in the diet as a whole. These include sugar (cane and maple) syrups, honey, candy, figs, dates, raisins, and other dried fruits.

Figures based on Bulletin 185, Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and Food Products, by H. C. Sherman.