The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-03
HOT TOWELS BAD
As Used in Barber Shops Breed
Microbes to Eyesight.
Face Turkish Bath Should Be
Refused.
PHYSICIANS WARN.
st. Louis Lawyers Narrow
Escape From Blindness.
Towel MicrObe Also at Work in
Chicago.
PHYSICIANS

st. Louis, Jan. SIT behooveth men
who get shaved in public places to write
down a new don't in their don't
books" IL they wish to preserve their
eyesight. A fresh Lnicrobe is abroad in
the land. He lives in the towels which
some BARRIERS lay across the eyes OF the
men who get shaved in public places.
He is a hardy microbe who is not in
convenienced by hot water. He trans
plants himself from the towel to the
eyes OF man and sets up a terrible state
of things in quick order.
Within the past few weeks many men
have come to oculist with eyes in which
a virulent irritation had been set up.
When they were questioned all of them
SAID they had been patronizing barber
SHOPS 'Where the custom obtains of civ
ing the upper part of the face sort of
Turkish bath by means Of a towel
which has been dipped in hot water.
The condition was almost identical in
each case, an infection SO pronounced
that film began forming over the pupil
ana pus was exuded, and the destruc-
ton of the sight was imminent
There is now at the Baptist Sanitar-
aum young lawyer and politician from
the east who came perhaps nearer than
anybody else to losing his eyesight.
The young man has been passing the
holidays in st. Louis visiting friends
tuesday his right eye began troubling
MIN. He supposed something had lodg-
ed In 1T which would wash out and the
Inflammation would SubSide.
But the irritation became more in
tense as the day passed. He had en-
gagged to accompany a young lady to
the Philharmonic Symphony concert in
the evening. In spite OF the severest
suffering he called at her home to keep
the engagement.
The young lady suggested that he go
to see doctor whose residence was
next door. He did so and the doctor
examined the eye carefully.
''There is no foreign substance in your
eye" he said TT has become infected
in some manner. I advise that you con-
suit a specialist without delay"
Instead Of going with him to the
concert the young lady accompanied
him to the office of a we'll known ocu-
list near Beaumont street and Washing
| ton avenue. The specialist said:
you are in grave danger OF losing
your eyeSight. Prompt and thorough
treatment is necessary to save it. An
operation may be necessary. You will
have to go Immediately to the Baptist
Sanitarium."
tients, and entering the carriage in
which the young man had come, &C
companied him to the sauitarium.
1t was bit unusual for a man to go
to a hospital in evening dress and high
hat, but his sight was more precious to
him than a, precise regard for the fitness
! of raiment
An operation was not necessary, but
the use of the knife could not have in
| fiicted more acute pain. The eyeball
was swabbed and scraped and cleansed
| and packed and the young men says
| with a shudder, he thinks 1t was sand
papered and chiseled.
The left eye was subjected to like he
| role treatment as a precautionary
| measure, and for "a hours the young
man was in anxious. bandaged dark
ness.
When the bandages were removed by
| the surgeon, a hopeful exclamation es-
| capped him. He feels confident now there
! will be no Ill effects, but If surgical in
| terposition had been delayed a few
| hours longer the sight of one and pos
sibly both eyes would have been de-
| stroyed.
The towel microbe has also been at
| work in Chicago. A few days ago a
| gentleman was asked in one of the swell
| shops on Sixth street, this city If he
| would have a hot towel over his eyes.
| mot for anything he said. 81 was
| blind three months in Chicago as re-
suit of the application of a hot towel to
| my eyes,
| The use of a hot, damp towel seems
| to be a western innovation. 1t is not
| used in eastern barber shops.
| The young man at the Baptist SAM
| tarfum is well known in st. Louis. He
| withheld permission to use his name be-
| cause he feared his parents would be
| rn611lY alarmed