The age-herald., 1897-10-03
PARISIAN SANITARY LAWS A New PremuIgation on Aseptic
 Barbering. TALK IN CLUBS AND HOTELS Society Young Men and Physicians Declare Themselves in Favor of Surgicaly Clean
 Razors, Scissors and Combs.

The talk at the club and hotels for two days has been of the sanitary reg ulations which Paris barbers have re- gently been compelled to observe in order to protect their customers from septic poisoning. The cause of the talk was a Paris despatch printed in The Age-IIeI'- aid Thursday morning. The despatch stated that, under orders from the sani- ta1y authorities, the Paris prefect of police has issued instructions to barbers which require that all metal tools which they use in their trade shall be plunged into boiling soap suds immediately af- ter using.
 It was this as follows: Under orders from the sanitary authorities the Paris prefect of police has issued instructions to barhers which require all metal too4s which they use in their trade shall be plunged in boiling soap suds immediate ly after using. The barbers are fur ther required to substitute metal combs for those ordinarily used that the combs may be the more easily cleaned and dis infected. Scissors, razors, clippers and brushes must be placed in a stove, heat ed to 100 degrees centigrade, or in a re-
  1cal solution, before use. Finally, the Paris barbers must wash their shaving brushes in boiling water before and af- ter using, and finishing with one cus- toner they must wash their hands be- fore passing to another.
 By the customers of barber shops who discussed the matter yesterday these in- structions were considered good enough fNh hfx,, ;,,4a .; tary code of Birmingham. A member of the Southern club has this to say about the matter:
 The regulations prescribed by the Paris authorities are none too stringent and the tools of no barber that I ever saw in Birmingham or anywhere else were as clean as these regulations re- quire them to be. I am more interest ed in the regulations applying to combs brushes and shears than in the others, because l always shave myself. If you will take the trouble to observe you will find that there are few barber shops in this city where the combs and brushes are as clean as they should be. Sup posing a barber is very careful to clean his comb and brush every time he uses them. it is impossible for him, without doink some such thing as the regula- tions compel, to remove from them &C., cretions that no person would care ito have transplanted to his head. The reg ulations are all right, and the Birming- ham board of health should borrow them. The question that occurs to me, however, is how could they be en- ferced?"
 One of the best known physicians in the city said:
 When read the despatch in The Age Herald l remarked to a friend of mine: The French have just done more for civilization than Napoleon ever did That remark expre ses my opinion of the regulations which have been fixed for Paris barbers. In my opinion, until these regulations were adopted, there was no barber shop in the world fit to be shaved in. I don't mean by that to say that barbers are not cleanly. Some or them are, but none of them are clean iy enough. Supposing a man with erup- tons on his face precedes you In a barber's chair. Suppose the cutlce on one of these eruptions De broken. In the blood that is drawn there may be poison. Some of it may adhere to the razor. In going over the mans face a second time some of the blood is bound to adhere to the lather brush. When the barber finishes with the man, what does he do? He wipes the razor on a. towel and puts it away. You takh your seat in the chair. The probabilities are that you will not be shaved with the same razor, but that you will be iathered with the same brush and from the same cup. How has that bean cleansed? If it's warm weather. tba shaving cup and brush will be washed out in cold water. If the weather be cold warm water will be used The cold water would never kill any germs and the warm water is seldom hot enough to do so. Therefore, you have the best chance in the world to be in- oculated, should the skin on your face be broken by the barber
 There is nd- so much danger, though. in my oplrlion, from carelessness in the cana of shaving rlools as from careless mess in the caile eff tools used i'm hair cutting. never saw "a comb and brush used regularly by barber that were as clean as iIhey ought Ito be. And I don't thfnl1 shall ever Saa one until barbers arc compelled by law Ito use greater care in the cleaning of combs and brushes Unless a barber be compelled he will apever have time to clean a comb and brush als it should be cleaned There is absolutely no reaISon why a barber should take less care of his tools than a surgeon takes of his. Our board of