The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-23
DANGER FOUND IN The BEARD.
DECLARED BY DOCTORS TO DE
A CARRIER OF DISEASE.
Hy gienic Reasons why Others Besides
Mnkmen and Sur scons should He
Clean shayen- bacteria In Boards
OF Physicians More smooth Faces.

n Nv 80 49,
started, and II it keeps the pace 1t has al
ready acquired II will not DO long before
whiskers will be as scarce as in the days OF
Napoleon.
The man Of fashion, the barber and the
doctor are ~concurring to give It force The
first Is influenced by the styles Of the day;
the second by desire Of gain; the third by
science, or at least hygiene, and in this
last cause Is found the real significance OF
the movement, since IL concerns the gen.
cral health.
For some years fashion has favored the
shaven face. Now come the doctors,
declaring that the beard is a vehicle for
the spread Of disease germs which may
not only menace the health Of the wearer,
but also be transmitted to others; that the
dairyman who wears n beard does 30 to
the peril of his customers who drink the
milk he communicates; that doctors who
wear boards report greater mortality
among their patients than those who do
not; that the man with a beard who enters
a railway coach cannot come away without
an addition Of bacteria which always infcst
such places.
1t is a fact that doctors have long separ-
ated themselves into two classes, those
1 WHO OO llld ~ Nv W. w. NN--
and in the larger clinics II Is noticeable
that the operators are as careful OF their
boards as Lord Lister was Of his finger
nails, but the idea of the danger in the beard
really camc TO the notice Of the public when
| the New York Milk Commission suggested
that all dairymen should be clean shavcn,
on the ground that q milkman with whiskers
is liable TO impregnate the milk with germs.
Following the suggestion the managers
| of the various milk depots in the neighbor-
| hood of B~inghamton have decided that only
smooth-faced mon will be allowed here
after TO nave anything to do with milking
or the shipping Of milk in that part Of the
! State. Orders issued TO that effect state
that even with ordinary cleanliness the
dust from the stable is liable 70 infect the
beard and from il the milk.
! The significance of the movement lies
in its relation TO the wearing Of boards
in general. If there is menace to the dairy,
there is menace TO other departments OF
industry.
SO important has the question become
| that various health authorities have for
some time been making reforms wherever
possible.
"I suppose the idea came y said DR.. Park
Of the New York Board Of Health, from
our suggestion 10 the m.ikmen OF the state
There is real menace To the milk II the
dairyman Is bearded.
In the first place, the mixer may be
diseased himself. He may have tubeT-
culosis and the dried sputum may accum-
ulate on mis- beard and drop from il into
the milk, which would then become danger
Gus TO any consumer already predisposed
to the disease. =,
"The mixer is forced 20 incline his head
over the milk pail in order 10 get near
enough to do HIS work. and YOU have no
doubt noticed that men with long boards
have q Eabit or stroking them downward.
That has the effect OF brushing OF any
germs they may contain.
Again, the mixer may be perfectly
healthy himself and yet accumulate bacteria
from the dust Of the stable. The beard,
particularly when damp. may become an
ideal germ carrier, and on an ~unclean man
would have great facility for the trans
mission of disease.
I'm the case of the physician II might
transmit disease If brought in contact with
il. For instance a doctor with n long
beard in examining n diphthcria case might
very well accumulate the germs OF the
disease while NE was bending down to eK-
anime a patient. A child with the disease
might cough and the doctors beard might
collect the germs, which when dry, could
very easily be transmit q in this way 10
another patient.
Understand. 7 do not say n has been
done. hut il could b. done. The danger IL
less in the case of the general practitioner
than i'm the case of the surgeon, whose
whiskers might not only interfere with his
work. but also collect the delctcrious ele-
ments Of some pus-flled cavity, which,
drying, might he transmitted TO some other
hospital patient. For that reason, perhaps,
many Of our surgeons are smooth shaver
or al least wear only the mustache.'
One of DR.. Parks colleagues sroke Of the
danger to health resulting more specially
from bearded doctors.
Undoubtedly he beard is a germ carrier
he said very positively. Il could give
YOU the names oc three or four w"li-known
phv-icians whose large mortality records
are believed 10 DO due 20 the fact that they
wear long. flowing boards, which transmit
disease.
There il one specific instance which
came under nv notice. We were uprr-
atiu! un an accident case, and tho CHEF
surgeon was a mar with n long beard.
In sowing w the wound this surgeon acct
dentally allowed the ligaturc TO touch his
beard.
1t brushed through ire ends Of tho hairs
over 50 slightly. We took careful note of
the part of the Hglture that had touched
the hairs Of the beard, remembering just
where that part rested in the wound. And
we were not surprised when a small stitch
abscess formed around the portion of the
l~igature that had been touched by tho
beard. Clearly the germs from the sur
geon's whiskers had infected the previously
sterilized ligatures. .
1T is impossible that q practitioner, and
particularly a hospital operator, bending
down over the breasts and the mouths of
tho diseased all day long, "a some of ms do.
should not run the risk Of transmitting
coutagion through the medium of a beard.
Ia fact. YOU have only to look around you
to note the possibilities OF disease which
NAV result from the wearing Of boards.
some time ago a Columbia College in
ve-tigator went into the elevated trains and
collected pieces of the mating and samples
of the air from the cars. lie did the same
in the ferryhouses. tho railway stations
and the churches.
"He took his sample TO the laboratory
of the College of Physicians and surgeons,
and when culture were made ne produced
an appalling number of bacteria, showing
the %unhygienic condition of the. various
public places he mad visited. Now, the
bacteria flying in the air OF IN" elevated
trains, for instance, could not IAN to ma
Judgment in the boards of tho passengers.
1T might be said that they would also
find Judgment on the clothes oil tho pas
sengers as well. but those clothes are com
psrativeiy much further removed than
the beard from the mouths ana nos'rlls
of the wearers and from the mouths and
n~os,rils Of the other passengers crowded
hard in the rush hours against the "earer