vealed dangers not suspected before, and in at least one case a sanitary precaution itself has been shown to be a

menace.

Everybody is familiar with the small stick of alum which occupies a conspicious place on the shelf just beneath the large mirror which faces the customer in barber shops the world over. The self-styled "tonsorial artist" in the highest class of shops, as well as the humblest "dago" barber of the slums are both in the habit of resorting to this apparently harmless "stick" on the slightest provocation, while the Occupant of the chair, thinking it all for his good, never raises a word of protest. If a real or imaginary pimple be slashed, or be made the excuse for an apology after a slash, the everyready alum stick is at once applied; or if the skin of the victim in the chair be rendered raw and irritated because of a dull razor or a "too close shave", the stick is again applied with equal alacrity. This is all done in good faith. The barber is proud of his action, thinking that the alum stick and his method of applying it are both essential to the proper conducting of a strictly "sanitary" shop. He thinks this magic stick will prevent infection in addition to controlling the bleeding, and in case of small, insignificant wounds he holds it in contact until the bleeding ceases. Then, sometimes, but not always by any means, he washes the stick and lays it on the shelf until he has occasion to use it on the next customer, who is as unsuspecting of the possible evil consequences as is he

himself. All this seems very harmless, -wherein lies the danger?

Dr. Remlinger, in the Paris investigation, took one of these sticks from a certain barber shop where it had seen service for about two months, a comparatively short time. By way of parenthesis it may be said that these "sticks" are composed of glycerine and alum, combined with a small quantity of boric acid, the latter being added with the avowed purpose and con

firmed conviction of making them perfectly sanitary and antiseptic! There is an ironical stupidity in that supposition. Dr. Remlinger hastened with his specimen "stick" back to his laboratory. He placed it in a carefully measured quantity of sterilized water-water free.from all germs -then immersed it a second time in another water-bath of the same kind. Next, he proceeded, with the aid of a microscope, to make a thorough search for any possible germs which might be contained. in the two separate specimens of water in which the stick had been immersed. The results were so surprising that he himself was astounded. In the first specimen he managed to count approximately no less than sixty-eight thousand two hundred and fifty diseaseproducing germs of various kinds! In the second specimen which he examined, and where few if any bacteria would be suspected, he recorded exactly fifty-nine thousand one hundred and fifty germs!

These results were a surprise to everybody, including the medical profession, who had always supposed that

these sticks were not only harmless, but actually as safe and sanitary as anything could be, and an important adjunct to any shop worthy the name of "sanitary". Yet, in spite of the boric acid which the stick contained to make it antiseptic, it fairly reeked with five different species of producers of "catching" diseases.

leather "strops" used for sharpening razors, and found them almost as bad as the alum sticks. But not content with what he had learned, he pursued his war

on the alum stick even farther. In a second experiment similar to the series already mentioned, he found on the surface of a newly-purchased stick of alum which had never been used, not only the five varieties of germs just referred to, but also large numbers of the deadly germs which are positively known to be the sole cause of such serious diseases as lock-jaw, tuberculosis, and the formerly much-dreaded diphtheria. Here was a nice kettle of flsh, and a nice group of disease-producers to have rubbed into your skin just because, as your barber applies the dangerous alum stick to your innocent hide, he laughingly tells you he has cut a pimple, "that's all", or your too tender skin won't stand a "close shave"! But to continue with the experiment: to make

Among the more numerous and important of these germs were the so-called "staphylococcus" and "streptococcus". Both of these are as wicked and troublesome as their names are long. They are cousins in the germ-world, and belong to the large group of "pus" producers. The first is always present in such delightful little troubles as boils, pimples and abscess; while the second is the cause of such serious and quite often fatal diseases as carbuncle and erysipelas. It is small wonder that after a visit to the barber a customer so often develops some one of these unpleasant and at times serious contagious diseases. Yet hitherto, or at least until this discovery by Dr. Remlinger, no one thought of blaming the barber, or thought of putting two and two together and tracing these contagions to their proper source. For none of these diseases, it must be remembered, ever develop of themselves; they are always "caught" from something of

some one.

Dr. Remlinger examined dozens of other sticks under the same conditions, and always with the same deplorable results. He even turned his attention to the

assurance doubly sure, Dr. Remlinger filled a syringe with the originally sterile water in which he had immersed the innocent-looking alum stick, and by means of a hollow needle injected the contents of the syringe into the bloodstream of several live guineapigs. None of them escaped infection; every one of them contracted some disease, including tuberculosis and the deadly lockjaw.

The facts deducible from these

experiments prove beyond question that these supposedly "sanitary" sticks are anything but sanitary; on the contrary, they are swarming with many kinds of dangerous germ-life, and undoubtedly infect numberless individuals who, with a faith worthy of a martyr, heedlessly place themselves at the mercy of a barber, without the slightest thought of any risk whatsoever.

Another danger, usually unsuspected, must be guarded against in the barber shop. Baldness, once thought to be due to "early piety" or a thirty-horsepower brain, and therefore lightly considered, is now known to be the aftermath of a really serious disease, a disease, indeed, most commonly transmitted by the barber's hair-brush. It's an old subject and a funny one, that of baldness-but the disease, which causes it, is one of the most widespread, and is only too often the forerun.er of a wide range of skin diseases, and forsooth, of at least one that is most serious, namely cancer of the skin! The greatest authorities on skin diseases in France and Germany are agreed on this, and this common ancestor of skin-cancer and baldness is contracted, nine times out of ten, from the hair-brushes which are used in rotation on all comers!

This disease which is the common forerunner of baldness, of many cases of skin-cancer, and of a wide range of most annoying or serious skin affections is known broadly as "seborrhoea", and manifests its presence under the guise of what is commonly known as "dandruff". In the vast majority of instances it is absolutely a barber-shop disease, contracted

from the bar

ber's comb and brushes in their previous employment on some one already afflicted with the ailment. Caused in the first place by the blameless ignorance of the barber, it is the one

dition for which he is everlastingly advising one of the many thousands of "good hair tonics". The disease is the result of an infection, that is, it is caused by one or more species of germ. Sometimes the disease confines its ravages wholly to the scalp, with resultant dryness of the same for a long period of years, then falling out of the hair, and eventual baldness.

This is the commoner course of about one-half of all cases. The main fact to be borne in mind, however, is that this disease only too often prepares the way for a vast array of obnoxious and annoying skin diseases which affect other portions of the body; while the disease itself in a large number of cases spreads to various parts of the face, especially to the bearded portion; and down over the back and chest. In these various regions this common ancestor of many ailments is designated as one form of eczema. Almost any other skin affection may follow in the wake of this piratical pioneer. The one thing not to lose sight of, however, is this: these various mentioned conditions start in the scalp, and are caused by the barber's brush! So far as cancer of the skin following on this trouble is concerned, no statistics are available; but it has been estimated that they run pretty close to eight per cent of all those cases in which the disease produces a general eczema instead of only baldness.

The key to the avoidance of the dangers of the barber shop lies in refusing to have applied to the scalp or face anything which is in

all likelihood infected. A few shops furnish a fresh, sterilized brush for every hair cut, and the brushes which are not washed in barber shops after use on each individual, should be

AKE a few grains of golddust, not over twenty-five cents worth, on the point of a penknife; scatter it over a

two-horse wagon load of rock and gravel; then shovel that load. over several times to mix in the golddust. Does it seem within the range of human science, ingenuity and skill to recover those few grains?

Yet, it can be done. It is practically being done every day in the Oquirrh Mountains in Utah. Every day twenty thousand tons of ore are being ground

to dust and treated in the great concentrating mills and smelters. From that dust 200 ounces of gold are recovered one ounce for every hundred

tons.

This is not the whole result. There are other minerals secured; but the finding and saving of that infinitesimal amount of gold in enormous masses of ore and waste, is the most striking object lesson of the marvelous ingenuity and patience of men in securing and utilizing metals-an ingenuity and patience which, in the crude sav