Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-02-18
DON'T KISS THE BABY!


The promiscuous kissing of children is
pestilent practice. We use the word advised
", 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 your dear friend
Mrs Brown the other day, with a strip OF tian-
mel round your neck? And when little Flora
came dancing into the room, didn'tyou pounce
upon her demonstratively, call her precious
little pet, and kiss her? Then you serenely
proceeded 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; nevertheless you Killed
her! Killed her as surel as if you had fed
her with strychnine or arsenic Your caresses
were fatal.
Two or three days after, the little pet be-
gan to complain of sore throat, too. The
symptoms grew rapidly alarming; and when
the doctor came, the single word dlptherla
suficed to explain them all. To-day little
mound in Greenwood is the sole memento OF
your visit.
Ofcourse the mother does not suspect, and
would not dare to suspect, you of any instru'
mentality in her bereavement. She charges
it to mysterious Providence The doctor
says nothing to disturb the deluson; that
would be impolitic, if not cruel but to an
outsider he is free to say that the child's death
was due directly to your Internal stupidity.
Those are precisely his words more forcibe
than elegant, it is true but who shall say,
under the circumstances, that they are not
just6able? Remember
EVIL is wrought by want of thought
As we'll as by want of heart"
It would be hard to tell how much OF the
prevalent sickness and mortality from dipthe-
ria is due to such want ofthought. AS 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 their breath or to the
greater danger of labial contact. Taking into
consideration the well established fact that
dptheria is usually, if not always, communica-
ted by the direct transplanting of the mallg-
nant vegetation which causes the disease, the
fact that there can be no more certain means
of bringing the contagion to its tavorlte soil
than the act of kissing, and the further fact
that the custom of kissing children on all oc-
casons is all but universal, it is not surprising
that, when the disease is once imported into
community, it is very likely to become cpl
demic.
1t would be absurd to charge the spread of
diptheria entirely to the practice of child-kss-
ing. There are other modes of propagation,
though it is hard to conceive of any more d.
rectly suited to the spread of the infection, or
more general in its operation. 1t stands to
diptheria about the same relation that promis'
cuous hand-shaking did to the itch.
1t were better to avoid the practice. The
children will not suffer if they 60 unkissed;
and their friends ought for their sake to fore
90 the luxury for season. A single kiss has
been known to infect family; and the most
careful may be in condition to communicate
the disease without knowingit. Beware, then,
of playing Judas, and let the babies alone
Scientific american.