BEAUTY BACILLUS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 465, 3 August 1909, Page 3

BEAUTY BACILLUS.

Instead of relying on ointments and lotions, the victim of a bad complexion may now call in the aid of the scientific bacteriologist (says the Daily Mail). For the past six months inoculations for beautifying the complexion have constituted a large part of the daily work at the inoculation department at St. Mary's Hospital, How the interjection of a few millions of disease germs into the tissues of the shoulder or side can transform a sluggish, blotchy complexion to a normal, healthy skin was explained at the hospital. The best results are obtained in -< the cases of “muddy,” sallow complexions, due to the sluggish action of the skin glands. The disease here is caused by a recently discovered germ named the “ acne bacillus.” In other cases where the skin is tender and painful another germ, the staphylococus,. is usually found as well. The treatment consists of interjecting under the skin vaccines composed of one or both of these two bacilli, according to |the spmptoms of the case. The ordinary patient seeking treatment for a bad complexion will A eceive in his first dose about 125 of staphylococci, with, perhaps, five millions of the acne bacilli. One great advantage of the new “ complexion treatment ” is the little time required. A tiny patch of skin on the shoulder or side is carefully washed and sterilised, and the vaccine is injected with a hypodermic syringe, the entire treatment taking only a minute or two.