The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-01-30
DON'T KISS THE BABY!
rom the Scientific american.

From the Scientific american.
The promiscuous kissing of children is a
pestient practice. We use the word sd-
visedly, and it is mild for the occasion.
Murderous would be the proper word, did
the kssers know the mischief they do.
Yes, madam, murdsrous; and we are speak
ing to you. Do you remember calling on
your dear friend Mrs. Brown the other
day, with strip of flannel round your
neck And when little Flora came dane
ing into the room, didn't you pounce upon
her demonstratively, call her a precious
little pet, and kiss her? Then you serene
ly proceeded to describe the dreadful sore
throat that kept you from prayer meeting
the night before. You had no designs on
the dear ch!lds 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 a sore throat, too.
The symptoms grew rapidly alarming; and
when the doctor came, the single word,
diphtheria, sufficed 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 suspect, you of any
fundamentally in her bereavement. She
charges it to mysterious Providence.
The doctor says nothing to disturb the de-
fusion; that would be impoltic, 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 pre-
cisely his words: more forcible than ele-
giant, it is true; but who shall say, under
the circumstances, that they are not justi-
table, 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 dlph-
liberia is due to such want of thought. As
a rule, adults have the disease in SO mild
form that they mistake it for simple cold;
and as cold is not contagi ous, they think
nothing of exposing others to their breath
or to the greater danger of labial contact.
Taking into consideration the we'll estab-
lished fact that diphtheria is usually if not
always communicated by the direct trans
planting 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 occasions
is all but universal, it is not surprising
that, when the disease is once imported
into community, it is very likely to be-
come epidemic.
1t would be absurd 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 oper-
alton. 1t stands to diphtheria about the
same relation that promiscuous hand shak-
ing formerly did to the itch.
1t were better to avoid the practice
The children will not suffer if they 60 I'M
kissed; 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 with
out knowing it. Beware, then, of playing
Judas, and let the babies alone.