DANGERS OF HAND-SHAKING.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 347, 2 January 1912, Page 7

DANGERS OF HAND-SHAKING.

The hand is the sole organ at the dis- i posal of mail for. placing hi meelf m com-! ;miinication with everything fiurrounclin<r ! ,him, whether it be ta guaid against thread I ening dangers or .to mi\ke vv>e of objects within its reach. This organ, by its external anatomical structure, is eminently liable /to retain the most minute particles of anything that comes m contact w.ith it.' Tlie hand is touching handker- \ chiefs, toothpicks, .gloves, hats, sometimesboots, .the nose, the> mouth, and the^haii I.—1 .— and all these are the habitual receptatcfas of humors excreted by the body as usless and often dangeA'Qua .. .FromJ>his one may judge of the manifold chances of contagion due. to .the.. .habit of shaking 1 hands, which no doubt politeness demands, but which .hygiene should forbid., -A table imght be drawn up giving a classified list of 'the professions: m which the-ihand.is r particularly liable, to become an instrument of contagion.. Such a list would "show first of all doctors and surgeons, hairdressers, b*tchers, pork : butchersj -tripje sellers, taunevi*, and leather dressers. Who can be sure that the-hand is'inot the itredcihinant cause of almost all contagions and of all ep'i.demics,: spreading irom; individual to individual residing at great distances apart by means; for instance, of letters other objects of correspondence transmitt-sd by post, and also by exchango of coins, bank' notes, and cheques. It must b& admitted as axiomatic, sbmev/ha-b paradoxical though it may appea.r, that "the hand is the least, cleanly part of .th« . whole human body." Why should not Something be found" to replace the hand-shake?