Medicine: Warning to Shavers

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If you have a shaving brush "of stiff hair, grayish in color . . . four-and-a-half inches over all, the handles three-quarters of an inch in diameter . . . stamped [on top] 'Japan 33²' and on the side . . . 'Imperial — sterilized' " put on your gloves, wrap it up, and bring it at once to your local health department.

Such was the substance of a warning issued by Assistant Surgeon General Clifford Ellison Waller and his public health colleagues to all U. S. shavers last week. Reason: a case of deadly anthrax in North Dakota last fortnight was traced to a lot of infected Japanese shaving brushes.

Rare in the U. S.. but widespread in Europe and Asia, anthrax is highly fatal, infectious disease conveyed to man by Bacillus anthracis, which infects sheep and cattle. Germs usually enter the body through infected meat, hair, and hides, produce abscesses, swellings, even gangrene and peritonitis.