The Washington times., 1917-03-07
POPULAR MEDICINE
BY DR.. HIRSHBERG
Intelligent Observation of Rules
of Hygiene Will De-
crease Illness.
BY DIR. LEONARD X. HIRsHBERG.

1t was Diogenes who changed the
definition of a man to include IAN
animal with sweet finger nails"
Plato had defined man to be a two
legged animal without feathers. Diog-
enes plucked a cock and brought 1t
!. into the Academy. This" sniffed the
wise man, sis Plato's human form di-
viner whereupon. 1000 years ago.
the addition to Plato's definition Of
man was made to include "a creature
with broad, flat nails"
Man is one to whom nothing hu-
man is alien, but what you have to
learn is how to acquire smooth, clean
and healthy nails.
The nails are little more nor less
than the skin. Indeed, you may form
fair estimate OF how often leop-
ard truly changes his spots or a man
his hide and his hair by the period
needed to grow a whole finger nail,
namely, some twelve weeks or so,
according to various circumstances.
Food, heat, sleep, work and play,
as well as health, influence or retard
the growth and formation of new
nail. Ordinarily, on the average nm
ger and feet, nails ought to be cut
and trimmed and the cuticle on the
fleshy margin pressed back at least
once a week. The breadth of the
overlapping nail ends, like the bud
ding flower, will show how fast the
nail is growing.
Dangers of Dirty Nails.
Finger nails are said to be useful
ofce again in Europe as they were
knss.. Akrohor, v,apt IN IN ITh. that
is to say. as weapons and tools for
trench digging, excavating, fighting.
scratching, opening knives and carry
ing secret messages. Such uses, how
ever, are not popular in most places,
SO the nails are kept gracefully short
or moderate in length and cleaned
frequently with peroxide OF hydrogen
and some neutral SOAP
One of the strange facts and red
flags of ignorance, incapRcity and
personal untidiness is dark streets or
dirt under the nails. The reason you
hear such expressions as "ltll never
get well IL you pick it," or "if you
scratch It, you'll get blood poison" is
that behind the bad grammar and in
accuracy lies the great fact that bac-
terra, microbes or germs are almost
certain to be inoculated into the flesh
from the finger nails.
The Best Cleansing Method.
Some emotional and absent-minded
persons and those given to bad man
ers or uncorrected habits bite their
nails" or chew on them. The origin
eof this filthy practice may be hang
nails" and rough edges, which are
first sucked upon or bitten once or
twice. Then follows the bad habit.
Finger nails themselves are not dan
gerous. Neither is a scratch" nor q
pick" II the margins of the nails
were sterilized, disinfected and as hy-
chemically clean as the surgeons
knife, you could pick and scratch a
disinfected skin to your hearts con-
tent with impunity.
1t is because the nails TEEN with
cocci and bacilli and your lily-white
alabaster skin is also filled with mi
crobes, that scratches and nail marks
are dangerous. Bone felOns" and in
famed "hang nails" are infections in
the flesh from the germs harbored by
nails
Red, swollen and infiamed "ingrow-
ing nails" are due to similar bacteria.
The treatment is hot boric acid water
applications to all such invasions.
CCopy't, 1917, by Newspaper Feature servioe)