The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1876-11-25
" DON'T Kiss Ny Baby.O

Says the Rochester Union - Mothers
are delighted when visitors caress and
kiss their little darlngs. They never
think of asking the family physician
what ill.results may come from the
practice, Read what is said below by
a thinker and observer, and rem"mher
the warning, The promiscuou+ kissing
Of children is a pesti!ent practice. We
use the word advisedly, at IL is mid
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 Flora came dancicg
into the room didn't you pounce upon
her demonstratively, call her precious
lltte pet, and kiss her ? Then yon
serenely proceeded to describe the
dreadful sore throat that kept you from
prayer MEETING the night before. You
had no designs on thu dear child's life,
we know nevertheless you killed her
Killed her as surely as IL you had fed
her with strychnine or arsenic. Your
carelessness was fatal. Two or three
days after the little pet began to com
plain Of sore throat too. The symp-
toms grew rapidly alarming and when
the doctor came the single word diph.
liberia sufticed to explain them all. To-
day little mound is the sole memento
of your visit. OF course the mother
does not suspect and would not dare to
suspect you of any instrumentality in
your bereavement, She charges ii to
mysterious Providence. The doctor
says nothing to disturb the delusion !;
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 stupidity. Those are precisely his
words and who shall say, under the
circu instances, that they are not justif-
able Remember
" Evil s wrought by want or Thought
AS well as by want OF heart"
1t would be- hard to tell how much of
the prevalent Illness and mortality from
diphtheria is due to such want of
thought, As a rule adults have the dis.
ease in so mild form that they mistake
it for simple cold, aud as cold is not
contagious they think nothing of eY>
posing Others to their breath or the
greater danger OF labial contact. TAX.
ing into consideration the we'll establish
ed fact that dlphtheria is usually If not
always communicated by the direct
transplanting OF the malignant vegeta.
tion which causes the disease, the fact
that there can be no more certain
means Of bringing the contagion to its
faVoriate soil than Il % 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 entire
Fly to the practice of child-kissing. TT ere
are other modes Of propagation, though
1t Is hard to conceive Of any more di-
rectly suited to the spread Of the infec-
tion or more general in its operation.
1t stands to diphtheria In about the
same relation that promlscuous hand
shaking formerly did to the itch. 1t
were better 10 avoid the practice. The
children will not suffer II they 90 un-
kissed; and their friends ought for thNr
sake to forego the luxury for a season.
A single kiss has been known to infect
Il family aud the most careful may be
in a cOnd tiOU to communicate the dis
ea,e without kno~iug L.. Beware,
then, of playing Judas, and let the ba
Dies alone.