Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1875-01-29
Don't Kiss the Baby

Is pestilent practice. We use the word
adyisedly, and it is mild for the occasion.
Murderous would be the proper word,
did the kissers know the mischief they
do. Yes, madam, murderous and we
are speaking to you. Do you remember
calling on youy dear friend, Mrs. Brown,
the other day, with a strip of flannel
round your neck? And when the little
Flora came dancing into the room, did
you not pounce upon her demonstrative-
ly, call her precious little pet, and
kissed her? Then you serenely proceed
ed to describe the dreadful sore throat
that kept you from prayer meeting the
night before. You had no designs on
| the dear child's life, we know, neverthe-
less 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 throat too. The
symptoms grew rapidly alarming, and
when the doctor came the single word
"diptheria !" suficed to explain them all.
To-day a little mound in Greenwood is
the sole memento of your visit. Of
course the mother does not suspect, and
would not dare to suspect, you of any in
strumentality in her bereavement. She
n
charges it to mysterious Providence.
The doctor says nothing to disturb the
delusion; that would be impolite, if not
cruel but to an outsider he is free to
say that the child's death was due di-
rectly to your internal stupidity. Those
are precisely his words more forcible
than elegant, it is true; but who shall
say, under the circumstances, that they
are not justifable2 Remember evil
is wrought by want of thought as well
as by want of heart"
1t would be hard to tell how much of
the prevalent sickness and mortality
from diptheria is due to such want Of
thought As rule, adults have the
disease in so mild a form that they mis-
take it for simple cold and as a cold
is not contagious they think nothing Of
exposing Others to their breath, or to
greater danger of labial contact. TAX
ing into consideration the well-establish-
ed fact that diptheria is usually, if not
always, communicated by the direct
transplanting of the malignant vegeta-
ton which causes the disease, the fact
that there can be no more certain means
of bringing the contagion to its favorite
soil than the act of kissing, and the fur
ther fact that the custom of kissing chill
dren on all occasions is all universal, it
is not surprising that when the disease is
once imported into community, it is
very likely to become epidemic. 1t
would be absurd to charge the spread of
diptheria entirely to the practice of
child-kissing. There are other modes of
propagation, though it is hard to con-
ceive of any more directly suited to the
spread Of the infection or more general
in its operation. 1t stands to diptheria
about the same relation that promiscu-
Gus hand'shaking formerly did to the
itch. 1t were better to avoid the prac-
tice. The children will not suffer if
they 60 unkissed, and their friends ought
for their sake to forego the luxury for a
season. A single kiss has been known
to infect whole family, and the most
careful may be in condition to COM
municate the disease without knowing it.
Beware, then, of playing Judas, and let
the babies alone.-,Scientifc american.