Ice cream first became popular in England in the mid-1800s. According to Atlas Obscura, ice cream street vendors, known as Jacks, sold tiny servings of ice cream in a glass container called a penny lick. As its name implies, the cup held just a "lick's worth" of ice cream. The small vessel made of thick glass had a cone-shaped indentation that held much less ice cream than it appeared. No spoons were needed—customers would lick the glass clean and give it back to the Jack for reuse. But the penny lick's deceptive serving size was the least of its problems.
Sweet-toothed customers got more than a lick of ice cream for their penny—they also got a lick at contracting a contagious disease. The Guardian reports that penny licks "were rarely wiped, let alone washed, between customers." Plus, the penny lick's shape made it hard to clean, and germs were easily passed from one customer to the next.
Today, this practice might send people screaming away from ice cream. But in the first half of the 19th century, people in England knew little about germs. However, once word spread about the transmissible nature of tuberculosis and other diseases, penny licks started to fall out of favor.
In 1879, a medical journal blamed an outbreak of a disease called cholera on penny licks. A law was passed in 1899 banning the use of those dirty dishes in London, and they were fully outlawed in England in 1926.
While the penny lick was permanently shelved, its story does have a sweet ending. The demise of the penny lick helped usher in the age of the ice cream cone. Now, edible cones of all shapes, sizes, and flavors remain crowd-pleasing containers for a scoop or two on the go. They even help hinder the spread of germs, assuming you keep your licks to yourself.
Question 2
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Which passage from the article best supports the idea that penny licks were to blame for spreading germs?
…ice cream street vendors, known as Jacks, sold tiny servings of ice cream in a glass container called a penny lick.
Sweet-toothed customers got more than a lick of ice cream for their penny—they also got a lick at contracting a contagious disease.
The small vessel made of thick glass had a cone-shaped indentation that held much less ice cream than it appeared.
…edible cones of all shapes, sizes, and flavors remain crowd-pleasing containers for a scoop or two on the go.
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The passage that best supports the idea that penny licks were to blame for spreading germs is:
"Sweet-toothed customers got more than a lick of ice cream for their penny—they also got a lick at contracting a contagious disease."
This sentence explicitly connects the use of penny licks to the risk of contracting diseases, highlighting the health risks associated with them.
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