Dirty Hands by F. M. Rossiter, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 23, 1911

Dirty Hands

By F. M. Rossiter, M. D.

F. M. ROSSITER, M. D.

How to prevent disease is the greatest problem that confronts the medical profession to-day. While wonderful triumphs have resulted because of the earnest and self-sacrificing efforts put forth to prevent certain diseases, much remains yet to be done.

Because of ignorance that prevailed in reference to smallpox, it is estimated that in one century, from 1700 to 1800, about fifty million people in Europe alone were carried off by that terrible disease. Now we know how to prevent the disease, so that ordinarily there is absolutely no excuse for any one's having it.

A physician discovered that the mosquito caused malaria, so we at once found out how to prevent it, and also how to cure it.

For centuries yellow fever was a scourge in many parts of the world. Then a physician, after enduring great perils, came forth with the claim that a certain mosquito was the cause of it, and he was laughed to scorn; but it was true, and so now we hear very little about this terrible disease. While the remedies for this disease failed, sanitation has nearly blotted it out. When we know how to prevent a disease, it is not necessary to look for a remedy to cure it.

Every physician knows that there is no drug nor combination of drugs that will cure tuberculosis; and every schoolboy or schoolgirl knows, or should know, the cause of this dread disease, and how to prevent its spread.

So I might tell about hookworm disease, typhoid fever, and many other diseases. No other adage is so universally accepted to-day as, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure;” and yet it is passing strange that, knowing what we do about the practical value of this truth, but few practise it.

Another saying that is given wide prominence is, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” There is much truth in this old saying, but very few actually practise it. Startling facts have been coming to light during the past year, especially during the past few months, in regard to the diseases that are transmitted because of dirty hands. How many lives have been sacrificed from this cause alone no one can ever tell; but the subject is of such great importance that each one should be informed, and join the ranks of those who are trying to prevent disease.

That clean hands were necessary from a sanitary standpoint, as well as properly to appear before the Lord, is clear to any one who will read a few chapters in Leviticus, and look up the marginal references. If any one touched a dead body, or any filth, or any unclean thing, he was unclean for some time, and had to bathe and wash his hands thoroughly. In many instances he was to bathe in running water. There is a great sanitary truth couched in these few words. Running water is always the cleanest and the purest water; and if one washes in any other water, he must rinse off the water that he has soiled from his own body. We gather from the instruction given in Leviticus that the Hebrew people were amply supplied with running water for all that great host to keep clean and free from contamination.

Because of increased prevalence of, and decreased resistance to, disease, there is more reason why people in this age of the world should keep their hands clean. When I speak of dirty hands, I have in mind more than the generally understood meaning of the word dirt. A man who works in a trench washes his hands before eating. The machinist tries to get all the oil and grime off his hands before appearing among his friends. The carpenter or the farmer has soiled hands, and usually washes before meals. But all this dirt, in the eyes of medical science, is clean dirt.

Nevertheless, people who are not careful about keeping their hands free from this kind of dirt are not likely to be particular about the real dirt; for the ordinary dirt can be seen on the hand, while the dirt that is so dangerous is not likely to be seen, and may even be on a hand that is perfectly manicured or covered by a glove.

According to Webster's Dictionary the word dirt comes from the Saxon word drit, meaning excrement. The Scriptures

give the same meaning. See Judges 3: 21, 22; Deut. 23: 13. Professor Sedgwick, speaking of this meaning of the word, says: “Dirt is dangerous, not because it is ‘of the earth, earthy,’ but because too often it is drit, or excrement.” Another writer says: “It is the unseen drit that plays the mischief with human life, because it is alive and can multiply indefinitely.”

No one knows how much mischief may be done by a few typhoid fever germs on the finger of a man who milks without washing his hands. Dr. Eyre made this experiment: By actual count he put 78 typhoid fever germs in absolutely fresh milk. In twenty-four hours there were 60,000; in forty-eight hours, 10,300,000; and in seven days, 480,000,000. Most milk is twenty-four hours old before used, and germs thrive in it. How much typhoid fever do you think would result from a few germs in a milk-can?

Reports that have been collected from Germany, England, and the United States during the past year, and from a bulletin very recently issued by the S. S. Public Department, show very conclusively that of those who have typhoid a certain percentage becomes what is known as chronic typhoid fever “carriers;” or, in other words, these persons are continually throwing off typhoid fever germs in the excreta. Only too often they are careless, and so are the direct cause of spreading the disease, not only among the members of the immediate family, but in a more extensive way.

Ten to twenty per cent of those who have typhoid fever become carriers for many weeks, and three to five per cent become permanent carriers. When we remember that there are hundreds of thousands of people all over the country that have had typhoid fever, we can appreciate the unseen danger that surrounds us.

A few months ago there was a woman in a large Eastern city known as “typhoid Mary,” because it was found out on investigation that in many families where she worked in various States several members came down with typhoid fever. She was carefully examined, and found to be a typhoid fever carrier.

The London Lancet reports the case of a woman seventy-four years of age who had typhoid fever in 1856. From 1905 to 1908 she ran a boarding-house, doing all the housework and the cooking. In a period of less than three years one hundred fifty-nine cases of typhoid fever occurred among her boarders. On examination it was found that she was throwing off typhoid fever germs in large numbers; and that after a lapse of fifty-two years. It must be obvious to every reader of this article that this woman did not wash her hands when she ought to have done so, even if she had not been a typhoid fever carrier.

A woman in Strasburg owned a bakery, which was scrupulously clean and passed the rigid German sanitary inspection. It was found that her employees were continually coming down with typhoid fever. She did the cooking for these laborers. Ten years before this she had had typhoid fever, and examination proved her to be a typhoid fever carrier. It is by means of carriers that typhoid fever makes its appearance in new regions.

There are also carriers of dysentery, plague, cholera, influenza, spinal meningitis, hookworm disease, and many other diseases. The Lord knew about these things when the hygienic directions were given to Moses for his people, and the same measures of cleanliness should be as strictly regarded to-day.

From the facts before us, it is time that there was a hand-washing reform on the part of every man, woman, and child. In this matter, however, women are more often offenders, for they have to do with the preparation of the food and drink for the household.

A writer has said: “We may prate about cleanliness being next to godliness; but unless cleanliness brings freedom from disease germs in our food, it is but as ‘sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.’ If our hands are dirty with unnamable dirt, though we may not personally be disease carriers, yet we should be deemed responsible because of the risk that we bring upon others. . . . He who, by his unspeakably disgusting habits, kills his dearest friends, sends into eternity his own children, delivers to the reaper death his own wife, sister, or parent, should be taught — forcibly, if need be — when and how to wash his hands, in order to put an end to such wholly avoidable tragedies.”

How many typhoid Marys there are among us all the time no one knows, but careful observation among even the better classes in hotels and on the palace ocean liners has shown that not half the people wash their hands at times when they should, although they have all the conveniences to do so. If this is true among the more favored classes, what must be the condition among the common people and the “great unwashed”? When dirty hands handle our food,— our bread, our milk, our fruit, our potatoes, everything we eat,— the thought is not reassuring. It is gruesome, and yet it is true. Dirty hands need more than to be dipped into the water and wiped on the common towel. Soap and water need to be used freely, and running water whenever possible.

What percentage of farmers and those who milk wash their hands in the morning before milking? If personal knowledge and observations are taken as a standard, the percentage is exceedingly small. There ought to be a great shout all over the land, and in other lands, “Wash the hands.” This is no small matter, but a very serious one.

‘Shall we continue to endure in silence this awful indignity, eating food prepared by those who have not properly washed soiled hands? Shall we permit thousands of Rachels to continue weeping for their children and refusing to be comforted, their ignorance and the ignorance of their servants having caused the slaughter? Shall we hear the groans of the suffering and the dying as we administer palliatives to lessen their misery, and not do our share toward putting a stop to such fearful results, by teaching the people what constitutes real cleanliness? Would that a modern Hosea might proclaim from our Christian pulpits, ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,’ and then burn into the hearts and minds of his listeners that the one thing they all need is to know just when and how they should wash their hands.’

Special care should be exercised at our camp-meetings, as conditions are such in most camp-grounds that to have clean hands is not a very easy matter. Would it not be a great step forward if camps were so provided with sanitary arrangements that all might wash in running water at times when they should? In the majority of camps this can be easily arranged without much trouble and with very little expense. If there is any place where people should be clean, it is when they come together to worship the Lord. ‘Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart.’ The clean hands here no doubt mean more than physical cleanliness, but it includes that. In many places when the Scripture speaks of washing the hands, it means washing up to the elbows.

Some may feel that undue prominence is being given to this matter of dirty hands, but to such it can be said that the subject is only being touched upon. Others may say, ‘I have lived fifty years and nothing has happened.’ How do you know? That is what people say who use alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, and other harmful things, but it does not prove anything.

North Yakima, Wash.