The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-23

of air could be drawn in through the
stopoock that protruded. IL was an
easy matter for DR.. Firth to turn on
the stopcock unobserved and secure a
quantity of the air of the particular
room or car in which he happened to
be. The air was, of course, taken to
the college laboratory and tested. In
a cubic meter OF abr taken from the
Queens County Court House he found
1l.777 bacteria. The same amount of
air taken from a Brooklyn church
contained $500 bacteria. In New
York school room fifteen minutes after
busting ne got 44,42S bacteria from a
cubic meter. In one of the ferry houses
the bacteria per cubic meter were a.
666. In another ferry house 81, Ill. In
an elevated car he got 25.444. But this
was nothing compared to the amount
of bacteria found on the floor mating
of these cars. In the report which he
made on this subject he says:
1.-The use of cocoa mats in the cars
of the elevated roads of Manhattan
establishes a condition that is preju-
dicial, IL not perilous, to the health of
passengers. These mats absorb all the
liquid filth deposited on them, and part
with 1t again after 1t has dried on the
fibers. / have estimated that on
fiber one and a half inches long from
the outer surface of mat there were
between three and four million bacte-
ria. On an inner fiber OF the same
length there we're nearly two million"
Whether II could be said that the
prevalency of the beard might be the
index of a nations healthfulness / do
not known. Most of the plague infested
nations have worn boards, but that
might be a coincidence Certainly the
beard for doctors at least, is not de-
AL NlaA oftns Of anft o1xf4 10
against IT, for of what use is 1t to be
immaculate In the matter OF apparel
and of fngernails when from the face
of the operator hangs ten times the
menace in the for of germ collecting
whiskers.
The writer made tour OF the best
barber shops OF New York to find out,
II possible, the proportion smooth
shaver men bore to the rest OF man
kind. The concensus OF opinin was
that the practice of wearing boards Is
dying out, and that even the mustache
Is growing less prevalent. The BARRIERS
proclaimed themselves heartily In ia
yor fthe beardless face. not because
OF any desire for the general good
health, but because OF the increase 1t
would bring to their trade. When IL
was intimated that perhaps IL would
also give them greater chance TO
spread contagion by means of the raz-
or they one and all acclaimed against
the possibility of such a thing taking
place. The razor, they said, can not
spread c0ntagion, since 1t rs always
sterilized before use in all first-cIass
shops. The only means of germ trans
mission that could apply In a barber
shop is the towel which, when wet.
furnishes a first-ciass culture medium
for the propagation OF bacteria, and
they said that Il Is only in the cheap
Italian shops, where the same towel Is
made to serve more than one person.
All OF which may be true enough. The
writer, In a walk down Broadway.
noted that among one thousand male
foot passengers only ; per cent. wore
boards. and that OF the younger men
a greater percentage were clean shaver
than mustached. Allowing for the fact
THAI many OF these young men were
smooth faced by virtue OF inability -
raise hair on their faces. Il n nignin-
cant when we consider that II Is not
80 long since every third man on
Broadway wore Vandyke