The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-02-17
MisceilaleoQs.
from tie Boeton Nedical and Surgical Journal.
Evil Effects of Shaving the Beard.


From tie Boetcn Medical and Surgical Journal
Evil Effects of Shaving the Beard.
Messrs. EDIToRs: / am prompted, by
remarks recently made by learned pro-
fessor of theology, on his conflicts with
the razor, to ask if the habit of shaving
is not both deleterious to the physical
health, and deteriorating to the races
which practice it? The professor thinks
that by shaving daily for forty years he
has wasted year and half of laboring
time, and nearly fifty pounds of beard,
to say nothing of the blood and tears he
has shed, and the agony he has endured.
1t has, he says, been the great misery and
traste-,eay of his life, and he would give
the world if he possessed it, as would
thousands of his brethren, if custom
would sanction the omission of shaving.
Now | have, within the past year, per
haps owing TO my own long -beardedness,
which, by=the-by, is indispensable, heard
so many similar remarks, both from emf
nent ministers of the gospel and other
citizens of most sterling sense, and wit
messed personally so much evil from the
habit, that | cannot forbear requesting the
privilege, through your excellent journal,
of saying that, comparing the present
with the past, there seems to be fearful
deterioration in the physical organization
of our race, worthy of the most serious
and immediate attention of every true
hearted American, patriot, and philan-
thropist. 1t cannot but be obvious to all
who regard the future defenses of our
country, that large families of robust and
healthy children are far less numerous
now than they were in former days
Scrofula, that truly direful scourge of
pro-shaving England and America, in
vades, in some one or more of its many
hideous forms, almost every domestic cir
Gle of our American population. The
indescribable pangs of neuralgia, which
were scarcely known to our ancestors,
are now as familiar as household words
in our families. Nearly as much is true
of bronchial and catarrhal affections, cry
sipelas, heart-disease, premature defec-
ton of the senses, physical deformity and
prostration coughs, and consumptions
which wasteaway the strength and beauty
of our homes, and dry up the fountains
of our joy. Another eminent professor,
whose active love of humanity has famil-
iarized him with the customs and condi-
tons of many nations, says: "I have
been much among the Abrahamic race
who never violate the commandment to
mar even the corners of their boards, and
/ never saw an instance of drunkenness
or pauperism, nor of premature physical
debility or hereditary disease, as they
exist among pro-shaving nations. Who
shall say that this chosen people, this
most heavily-bearded of all races, is not
by their religious devotion to the laws
of health, destined to stand upon the
earth and fill it with unabridged, unadul-
terated manliness, when other nations of
greater boasted light and knowledge shall,
by their fool-hardy violations of nature,
have consumed themselves and passed
away ?"
The aboriginal inhabitants of our soil
and climate were once brave, powerful,
and numberless almost as ''the stars in
the sky, the leaves on the trees, and the
sands on the sea-shore." But they waged
war increasingly against nature. They
resisted her kindly efforts to mantle their
faces with manly boards, grew each gen
Grafton more and more effeminate, be-
came an easy prey to their enemies, and
now, like the beard which they so obsti-
nately uprooted from their faces, they are
themselves uprooted from the face of the
earth. The Chinese, too, have been
"shorn of their locks" and their strength,
till as nation they have but little more
than nominal existence. speak from
the experience and close observation of
more than twenty years of dental practice,
in saying that [ have not doubt that to
the loss of nutrition, and to the exposure
and arrangement of the animal functions
caused by necessarily scraping off the
beard, is to be attributed much of the
alarming increase of premature detection
in the dental organism, which tends di-
rectly to imperfect mastication, indiges-
ton, dyspepsia, and "all the ills that flesh
is heir to- 1t is now no uncommon
thing for children 10 or IL years old to
need extensive operations on their Sec
ondary teeth, nor for young men and wo-
men of go to require whole SETS Truly,
with vengeance have the fathers eaten
their sour grapes. At this rate, how soon
as nation shall We be sans eyes, sans
teeth, sans everything?"
This increasing degeneracy is no new
idea but while one attributes it to va
riable climate, another to unventilated
houses, another to lead-poisoned water,
and others to -four too finely, or to food
too coidly, too hotly, or too hastily bolted,
few only venture to speak boldly of the
tons and tons of the physical stamina and
manliness of pure Americanism which is
daily sacrificed by the relentless razor to
that despotic Delilah, Fashion. Pull
monary disease, bronchial Inflammation,
cough and night sweats, had so reduced
my system more than year ago, that
eminent physicians in Boston and else
where assured me that my existence
would soon be terminated. Resolved,
however, if 60 / must. to go as whole
and resistingly as possible, | discarded
at once, and as | now joyfully believe
foreuer, the use Of my razor. The result
is-a restoration to almost perfect health,
and freedom from thirstiness and debility
which seemed formerly to demand so
much medication and artificial stimula-
ton. That l have heavy grizzly beard
ismost true, and thatit Is offensive to
existing tastes it grieyes me to sayis quite
as true. But that il is repulsiye, exces-
sively so, to the shallow Drained dupes
and votaries of mere unsancti6ed custom
and consentionaliiy, troubles me so little
that / survive the caustic joke, the scorn-
full smile, the witbering frown, the cold
shoulder, and diminished patronage, as
sured that ] am thousand fold repaid
not only in restoration to health, but in
.' a souls calm sunshine and heartfelt
JOY" which exists only in q conscious
ness of rectitude that can afford 10 be
laughed at.