Contagious Diseases Acquired in Shaving.

Evening Star, Issue 7326, 26 September 1887, Page 4

Contagious Diseases Acquired in Shaving.

A case which was recently decided in a county Court may serve as a caution to barbers and hairdressers, who are in danger of forgetting their responsibilities in respect of contagious disease, while it should instruct the public as to some obscure but unavoidable risks to which they are liable. A man who was in the habit of being shaved every Saturday evening at the very modest cost of three-halfpence was sensible on a certain Sunday of an unaccountable irritation in the skin of his face. He consulted a neighboring practitioner, who pronounced his trouble to be "parasitic barber's itch." One form of sycosis menli, it will be remembered, is due to the presence of the parasite or ringworm, and, like other cases in which the seats of hair-growth are affected by this troublesome pest, is very intractable. This, doubtless, was the character of the disease in question in the case before us ; and the decision of the Judge, which wasnot arrived at without considerable hesitation, held that the barber was guilty of having infected his client by means of a dirty razor, brush, or towel. We confess that this judgment is, to our mind, by no means a clear one. Of direct proof of culpable neglect on the barber's part there was none. At the same time no other possible source of contagion appears to have been suggested ; and certainly the facts that the face was the part affected, and that at the cost a cleanly renewal of shaving materials for each customer was well nigh impossible, must invest the verdict with whatever support is derivable from circumstantial ovidence. If, therefore, we grant that the materials üßed were not clean, to which of them should blame be specially attached ? It seems to us far less likely that the razor was accountable than that either the soap or towel was so, the first-mentioned being so much more easily cleansed. With a view to the prevention of such accidents in future, it seems, therefore, advisable that all barbers should follow the rule already observed by the better class of that fraternity, and in place of using soap in the block form employ a soap cream, a little of which can be set apart for each customer. The provision of separate towels and brushes in each case is at least equally desirable, even though it entail an extra halfpenny in the charge.— ' Lancet.'