DIRT: CLEAN AND OTHERWISE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 983, 1 March 1910, Page 4

DIRT: CLEAN AND OTHERWISE.

The line between clean dirt and dirty dirt is drawn very clearly by Dr R. Gi Eccles in an article on "Dirty Hands," contributed to the "Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette," New York. Dirt is really dirt, according to Dr Eccles, only when it is unhygienic; that is, in general, only when it contains the germs of disease. When we look at J;he matter in this way. we see that much visible dirt is really "clean." Likewise, much invisible dirt is of the deadliest kind. Says the writer: "Mud and soil, coal dust and ashes, paint and varnish are almost as harmless as the clothes we wear. It can kill no one in any such dose as and single mortal is likely to partake. The suckling infant is not at all likely to be harmed by it. The' 'great unwashed' revel in such dirt from age to age, and, the moral effect being excluded, no harm comes to them from it But this dirt of theirs, by being a tell-tale of careless habits, becomes a visible index of the invisible dirt that is deadly. People who are willing to tolerate the visible dirt are pretty sure to be none too careful concerning the dangerous dirt. The kinds get blended. It is, however, not only possible, but actually probable, that there are foul and filthy hands, of the kind to which reference is here made, that are by their owners kept perfumed with the odour of frangipani, ylang-ylang, or musk, manicured till finger-nails shine and every ves- ■ tige of visible blackness has disap- i peared, and are kid-gloved besides. ] They wash, as they eat and sleep, under the guidance of a clock. That £ there is a fitness in time for wash- U irg in order to be clean : has nut i dawned upon their understanding. It \ l can safely be asserted that the chief L U!«ipfentional crime of our age—if.; j Wf on oil <hat wMch is unconscious J o at.il u'liniei.tional a crime—h dirty ; * t\a'«-><*. Lesa tnun a century ago the j medical proiession hat! to fact} this • s pi-rilli: - is h most seiK<ns form. Like i to the hands of the'average layman the j a hainia of' medical -ineu w v ere'. then j w equally as filthy. " Now'; thanks to our j ® Knowledge of bacteriology, we ; hj, knov when anl how fo wash our t ti

bauds su as to avoid doing as did our predecessors in the medical profession."