The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1899-01-26
NEW PERIL TO EYESICHT
Hot Towels In Barber Shops
Breed Microbes.
REFUSE THE FACE TURKISH BATH.
Prominent Young St. Louis Lawyers
Narrow Escape From Blindness.
Against n Recent Western Innova-
ton Which Has Proved Dangerous.

~ AAASA4 "Ao eSS 1A
public places to write down a new
"don't'' in their ''don't books if they
wish to reserve their eyesight. a fresh
microbe 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
in St. Louis have come to o~culists with
eyes in which a virulent irritation had
been set up. When they were ques-
toned. all Of them said they had been
pa~tronizing barber shops where the GUS
tom obtains Of giving the upper part Of
the face a 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 a film began forming over the pu-
pill and pus was exuded, and the de.
struction of the sight was imminent.
There is now at the Baptist santa
rum a 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 holi,
days in St. Louis visiting friends. The
other day his right eye began troubling
him. He supposed something had lodged
in it which would wash out and the in.
flammation would subside.
But the irritation became more in,
tense as the day passed. He had engaged
to accompany a young lady to the Phil.
the evening. In spite Of the %severes,
suffering he called at her home to keel
the engagement.
The young lady suggested that he gn
to see a doctor whose residence wa.
mex door. He did so, and the doctor
examined the eye carefully. "There il
no foreign substance in your eye" he
said. lit has become infected in some
manne advise that you consult a
specialist without delay"
Instead Of going with him to the con.
cert the young lady accompanied him
to the office of a we'll known oculist
near Beaumont street and Washington
ven The specialist said: "You are
in great danger Of losing your eyesight.
Prompt and thorough treatment is nee.
essary to save it. An operation may be
necessary. You will have to 60 imme.
diately to the Baptist sanitarium."
The doctor dismissed his other pa
tients, and entering the carriage il
which the young man had come &C
was a bit unusual for a man to go to q
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, bui
the use Of the knife could not have in.
hlcted more acute pain. The eyeball
was swabbed and scraped and ~cleansed
and packed and the young man says,
with a shudder, he thinks it was sand.
papered and chiseled. The left eye wal
subjected to like heroic treatment as
precautionary measure, and for "a
hours the young man was in anxious,
bandaged darkness.
When the bandages were removed BY
the surgeon, q hopeful exclamation es.
capped him. He feels confident now
there will be no i'll effects, but if surgi.
cal interpretation had been delayed q
few hours longer the sight OF one and
possibly both eyes would have been de.
stroyed.
The towel microbe has also been al
work in Chicago. A few days ago q
gentleman was asked in one Of the swell
shops in st. Louis if he would have a
hot towel over his eyes. mot for any
thing" he said. II was blind three
months in Chicago as a result of the
application Of a hot towel to my eyes. ;
The use of a hot, damp towel seems
to be q western innovation. 1t is not
used in eastern barber shops. The young
man at the Baptist ,sanitarium is well
known in st. Louis. He withheld per.
mission to use bis name because be
feared his parents would be unduly
alarmed st. Louis Post Dispatch.