The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-09-23
DON'T Kiss the Baby.

The promiscuous kissing of children is
q 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, murderous, 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 Flo
IA came dancing into the room, didn't
you pounce upon her denonstratiyely,
call her 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 surely as if you had fed her
with strychnine or arsenic. Your ca
resses were fatal. Two or three days af-
ter, the little pet began to complain of
sore throat, too. The symptoms grew
rapidly alarming; and when the doctor
came, the single word "diptheria" suf-
feed to explain them all. To-day lit
tie mound in Greenwood is the sole me-
mento of your visit Of course the
mother does not suspect, and would not
dare to suspect you of any instrumental
ty in her bereavement. She charges il to
a mysterious Providence. The doctor
says nothing to disturb the delusion, 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 in
fernal stupidity. Those are precisely his
words; more forcible than elegant, it is
true but who shall say, under the cir
cumstances, that they are not justi6able !?
Remember
"Evil is wrought by want of thought,
As well as 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 mistake it for q
simple cold; and as cold is not conta-
gious, they think nothing of exposing
others to their breath, or to the greater
danger of labial contact. Taking into
consideration the we'll established fact
that diphtheria is usually, if not always
communicated by the direct transplant
ing of the malignant vegetation 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 further fact that the
custom of kissing children on all occa-
sions is all but universal, it is not surpris-
ing that, when the disease is once i'm
ported into community, it is very like
ly to become epidemic. 1t would be alb
surd to charge the spread of diphtheria
entirely to the practice Of child kissing
There are other modes of propagation,
though'it is hard to conceive of any more
directly suited to the spread Of the
infection or more general in its operation
1t stands to diphtheria about the same
relation that promiscuous hand shaking
formerly 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 forego the
luxury for a season. A single kiss has
been known to infect family; and the
most careful may be in condition to
communicate the disease without know
ing it. Beware, then, of playing Judas,
and let the babies alone.--,Scientifc An,er-
aaR.