The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-03-04
DANGER IN a SHAKE.
A LEARNED DISCUSSION ON DIS
EASE TRANSFER.

Microbes of Every Kind Find Lodgment
In the Skin-Contact Even of the Clean
Iy May Spread Contagion-Serious Re-
suits From Hand Clasping.
Is it possible for one man to commu-
nicate disease to another by the shaking
Of hands?
If this question be true, should the
custom be abandoned or should it be
modified under medical instruction SO
as to minimize the danger?
The existence of micro organisms
inimical to life and health has been es-
tablished beyond dispute DR.. Breiter
Pounds his thesis, recently printed in
The Medical Record, on this hypothe-
sis. But his leading point, insisted up
on with much force, is the danger which
is hidden in the apparently harmless
and sometimes pleasing custom of shak
ing hands. He says:
THAT the surface of the human body
is very anotbed for the propagation of
a great variety of heterogeneous
Fuerbinger, Mittman, Bizzozero. Ma
giora and WEIGH have elucidated most
conelusively. 1t is certainly beyond the
shadow of a doubt that in the presence
of predisposing factor and sometimes
even without that the microbic diseases
are ushered into existence by their indi-
vidual prototypes, this being essentially
brought about by contact in some way
of the two contingent forces. Modern
surgery is founded on this principle.
The carefulness with which we prepare
our hands and surgical instruments be-
fore and after a surgical operation well
exemplifies the Importance of famil-
iarity with its dangers in every sense.
"We recognize that many of our mi
crobic diseases, especially of the exam
thematic type, eliminate their toxic ele
ment very largely through the medium
of the skin, which undergoes extensive
exfoliation, disseminating the poison far
and wide. Isolation is resorted to and
enforced most vigorously, thereby check
ing the spread of the disease, and then
disinfectants lavishly used cause the de-
struction of the offending armies. In
the era of scientific prophylaxis conse-
quent upon the introduction of the mi
croscope, bacteriology and antiseptics
we find a steady decline of epidemics
either developing in the outer world or
in our hospital wards Yet accidental
NEGOTIATIONS of tuberculosis, smallpox
and vaccinia, as well as more horrible
diseases, still exist and are but demon
STATIONS of either an unavoidable cause
or faulty observance of established
data. -
DR.. Breiter gives thorough discus
sion as to what may be the result of con-
tact of the hands. He declares that with
men who are of Clearly habits but who
have acquired disease and such as they
would wish to hide from their fellow
men, the specific bacillus of this disease
has been found in filth collected from
the hand. He has found tubercle bacilli
in the dirt taken from the hand of the
man suffering from tuberculosis, the
Klebs-L oeffler microbe among cases of
suspected diphtheria and had no doubt
that the specific germs of every microbic
disease may and would be found in mil
lions on the surfaces of the hands if
proper experimentation were made. He
proceeds as follows:
"Many victims of scarlet fever, both
in the early and desquamative stages,
especially the latter, are walking the
streets of every large city ready to in
graft upon the moist hand of any chance
acquaintance the prolific virus of the
disease. The same may be said of per-
sons with pulmonary tuberculosis
whose hands and handkerchiefs, through
constant wiping of the mouth, are foul
and saturated with the bacteria laden
expectoration of the disease. Tubercu-
losis of the hand, the lesion large or
small in area, often painless and I'M
recognized as such for long while and
perhaps untreated, is by no means an
infrequent occurrence. Scabies, we
know, has marked prediction for the
hand Need I mention others? Now
whether these conditions are the result
of hand to hand contact or not does not
matter. The conditions themselves are
dangerous elements. and it is the con-
sideration of such factors in the causa-
GlOu Ol QlSOdS0 tudb VIC oAO ceuOy 4AS
ssOf course the mucous membrane
serves as better pabulum for the inya-
sion and development of micro organ
isms, but the skin is not absolutely neg
alive in that respect, and if it were it
would make little difference, as the
two, skin and mucous membrane, are
very often in close opposition with each
other. We know that the hand has car
ried bacteria to the mouth, disseminate
ing contagion in that way. Typhoid fe-
yer, Asiatic cholera, diphtheria and 9TH
er diseases are known to have been pro-
duced that way. Why search through
medical libraries for similar and per-
haps more conclusive evidence? The
subject has passed the stage of novelty.
So while we professional people are by
reason of our profession forced to invite
and then to battle-for we have antisep-