Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1875-01-28
Don't kiss the Baby.

The promiscuous kissing of children
is a pestilent practice. We use the
word adVisedly, and it is mild for the
occasion. MurderOus would be the
proper word, did the kissers know the
mischief they do. Yes, madam, MUIR
derous, and we are speaking to you
Do you remember calling on your dear
friend, Mrs. Brown, the other day,
with a strip of flannel round your
neck? And when little Flora came
dancing into the room, didn't you
pounce upon her demonstratively, call
her a precious little pet, and kiss her
Then you serenely proceeded to de-
scribe the dreadful sore throat that
kept you from prayer meeting the
night before. You had no design on
the dear child's life, we know; never
theless, you killed her! Killed her as
surely as if you had fed her with
strychnine or arsenic. Your caresses
were fatal. Two or three days after,
the little pet began to complain of
sore threat, too. The symptoms grew
rapidly alarming, and when the doc
tor came, the simple word, 'diptheria,'
suf1ced to explain them all. To day,
little mound in Greenwood, is the
sole memento of your visit. OF course
the mother does not suspect, and
would not dare to supsect, you ofany
instrumentality in her bereavement
She charges it to mysterious ProVi-
dence. The doctor says nothing to
disturb the delusion-that would be
impolitic, if not cruel; but to an out
slder he is free to say that the child's
death was due directly to your infer
nal stupidity. Those are precisely his
words-more forcible than elegant, it
is true but who shall say, under the
circumstances, that they are not iusti-
fable Remember,
evil is wrough by want of thought
AS well as by want Of heart.''
It would be hard to tell you how
much of the prevalent sickness and
mortality from diptheria is due to such
want of thought. AS q rule, adults
have the disease in SO mild form that
they mistake it for simple cold, and
as a cold is not contagious, they think
nothing of exposing others to theil
breath, or to the greater danger of la
bal contact. Taking into considera.
ton the well established fact that dip.
liberia is usually, if not always, com.
municated by the direct transplantine
of the malignant vegetation which
causes the disease, the fact that there
can be no more certain means oil
bringing the contagion to it's favorite
soil than the act of kissing, and the
further fact that the custom of kissing
children on all occasions is all bu
universal, it is not surprising tina
when the disease is once imported in
to a community, it is very likely tC
become epidemic. 1t would be alb
surd to charge the spread of diptheria
to the practice of child. kissing. There
are other modes of propagation, though
it is hard to conceive of any more di
. rectly suited to the spread of the in
fection or more general in it's opera
ton. 1t stands to diptheria in abou
? the same relation that promiscuou
hand shaking formerly did to the itch
1t were better to avoid the prsctice
, The Children will not suffer if they &C
unkissed and their friends ought fol
their sake to f0rego the luxury for
season. A single kiss has been known
to infect a family and the most care
D full may be in q condition to eommu
nicate the disease without knowing il
Beware, then, of playing Judas, anC
let the babies alone.-[ scientific Amer
lean,