The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-10-26
Let Our Motto Be
GOOD HEALTH
BY DR.. LLOYD ARNOLD
| Professor Of Bacteriolosy and Preventive
Medicine, University Of Illinois,
College of Medicine.
SKIN POWER OF SELF
DISINFECTION

Lave you ever stopped to wonder
4 what marvellous structure this
skin of ours Is? It's only one twenty
fifth Of an inch thick. Yet It's all the
protection we have for the inside Of
our bodies against the outside world.
Unless we're nudists or fan dancers,
we cover 1t with clothes, parts of 1t.
But we all of US occasionally set our
bare faces against 10 miles an hour
wind; we go out into cold that Ia 80
to so degrees below zero; on q hot
day we move about under a sun that
is broiling at 100 degrees, when we
can't stand a fever temperature Of
much over 1O5 degrees, And we do
all sorts of work with our bare hands.
But we still don't know much about
this skin of ours. Science has been
concerning itself with our bones, our
hearts, lungs and other vital organs;
1t hasn't been giving SO very much
attention to this thin layer Of tissue
that keeps our body from drying out.
That, incidentally, Is another func-
ton of the skin we don't always ap-
| preciate.
One thing, however, we have been
finding out in the medical research
laboratories of the University of Illi-
nois, and that is that our skin is just
about the most remarkable disinfect-
ing agent there Is. You can put all
sorts of germs, millions of them, on
| O1n CIyi nd IN
minutes they have disappeared.
We discovered, though, that the skin
has certain minute never-sterile areas,
where the germs don't disappear. The
first of these Is the area under the
finger nails. The second is the thin
line that marks the junction of the
outside skin of the lip with the men,
brane lining of the mouth. The third
is the line where the outside skin
| joins the membrane lining Of the nos
trils. The fourth is the rim of the
eyelid where the outside skin meets
the inside lining. Perhaps this is why
most eye infections occur on the rims
of the eyelids.
The first experiments were made on
the outside skin. The university lab
oratory assistants, all normal, healthy
persons, were the subjects This is how
the experiments were conducted.
When the chest. abdomen back, legs
or arms were studied, a piece Of
sterile gauze was moistened with bac-
terial culture and placed upon the
skin area for one to three minutes.
Then the gauze was removed and i'm
mediately after the skin was rubbed
gently with sterile cotton swab
This swab was then smeared over
the surface of an agar plate, and the
number Of bacteria were counted. In
FIVE minutes another sample was TAX
en-, and then again in ten, fifteen,
twenty, and thirty minutes. When the
specimens were taken of the hands,
the whole hand was submerged in the
bacteria solution, and then specimens
taken of the various sections to learn
| If one section was more resistant than
| another.
This is what we found: That 50 per
cent of the thousands of bacteria that
had been placed in contact with the
skin disappeared from the skin with
in ten minutes That there Is one ex-
ception to the self-disinfection of the
outside skin. This, as has already
| been stated, Is the skin under the
nails Even after the thorough scrub
bling and cleaning that the surgeon
| gives his hands before performing an
operation, germs called staphylococoi
are always present in large numbers
In these spaces.
Altogether eleven various kinds Of
bacteria were used in the tests, from
the harmless B.coli to the germs that
produce wound Infections, lockjaw,
boils, blood poisoning, typhoid and
dysentery. The skin got rid Of the
dangerous germs just as quickly as 1t
got rid of those that were harmless.
These tests were on clean skin.
Then we experimental with skin
coated with fat. vaseline rubbed into
the hands was used in one test. That
retarded considerably the self-disin-
fecting power of the skin. Then nat
urally oily skin was next swabbed.
| That also did not work so well. Which
may help account for the fact that
| persons with oily skin are apt to have
trouble getting rid Of skin eruptions.
Finally some plumbers and electri-
clans were called in just as they were
finishing their days work and be-
fore they had washed. Their hands
were of course grimy. The tests were
! applied before and after washing,
with these results: After 10 minutes
the dirty hands showed no reduction
of bacteria; the clean hands had lost
So per cent. After 20 minutes, the
dirty hands had lost only per cent
of bacteria; the clean hands were
entirely free. After 80 minutes the
dirty hands still retained IS per cent
of their bacteria.
Next we removed patch of outside
skin to see whether the next layer
of skin had the same resistance pow