WAR ON HAND-SHAKING

Otaki Mail, 16 July 1923, Page 4

WAR ON HAND-SHAKING

i A ■-: : \< ■>. to nr.AX/iH. "REFORMERS" IN AMERICA. j TUT: leforroers are on the w&rpalli I to eljmir.ote. another danger, says the ! Pittsburg correspondent of a London paper, and if they succeed the hand. I shake will in a few years have gone ; the way of the roller towel, the 1 family tooth brush, and-the insanitary ] drinking euj). Prominent doctors * agree tliat handshaking is not only -'<■ j carrier of disease germs, but is e.v. j tremely harmful to the nervous system, i I Dr. S. R. Haythorn, until rec&zitly I ;' chairman of the Sanitation Committee i jof the Allegheny County Medical J j Society, when questioned on the sub- j jeet, said: "During 'he influeazs I I epidemic bulletins were put out by the j United .States Public Health Service, : | warning people against shaking hand*. J I think that hand-shaking' is very b&d j j during an epidemic. Although I do j J not think it a very serious menage i ordinarily, it is probably a bad prae. ' tice. No person with tuberculoid* j ought to shake hands." | General handshaking was condemn, j j ed by Miss Xa.'i L. Dorsey, luperinlend- j j eat of the Public Health Nursing As. j j soeiation. "While there are a. great | many factors to be considered, and I J think, in some inttanees, such as th* | borne, handshaking is all right, iadis. criminate handshaking :s very bad," she said. "1 have been told thtt President Harding and the late Theodore Roosevelt had to have masseur* to manipulate their hands, and titers | was almost evidence of paralysis after 1 they had shaken, hand* constantly." Mrs Enoch Eaub, director r.f the De- , j pa.riment of Public Charities'. and i formerly president of the Council of j I Jewish Women, who has always beea j . actively interested in the welfare ana I • '. general health of the public, expressed j - | her opinion a* follows; "1 think that ' ] I hand.shaking ought te be eliminated ; 1 from society, and agree that it is a 1 irertn carrier. Many germs cort2re- , gate on the hands, and we cannot be washing our hands constantly. I think it is a good thing to abolish hand, shaking, just a= I think it is to do away with kissing. I have been on& of the kissers, and love to kiss, but I do not think it is sanitary I have been told that hand.shaking- is of great harm to the nervous system, and that certain public people who have been j called upon to shake hands a great j deal have discontinued it because of its ' prostrating effect on the nerve?. Onecan be just as cordial without shaking hands." Dr. •':. J. Styber, president of the North Side branch of the Allegheny County Medical Society, said that hi thought ordinary handshaking wai na: very dangerous, but in cases of highly Infectious disease, bacteria can accumulate on the hands, and when a slice of bread or other food is touched it is