Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-03-20
P0lS On IN KISSING.
A Physician's Views As Presented at
Medical Meeting.

Utica -. " letter.
Lives are daily sacrificed and diseases
are daily communicated by the promis.
cuous habit of kissing As a custom it
should be abandoned among women in
their greetings
Ii is within my remembrance that a boy
was suddenly stricken down with that
dreadful malady, diphtheria The mother
kissed the son most aiicctionatcly but it
was the kiss of death for her. have no
doubt other phys clans have noted similar
observations.
In the sacred precincts Of the arcsidc,
when death has laid its relentless hands
on one Of its members. the common prac-
ticc Of kissing is liable to induce septic;p.
mia, and thus other precious lives be ex-
posed to the vcnomous sting Of death. AS
you can see more easily the action of "a
urug when given in Il large dose 50 you
VIII see more po.ntedly the danger arising
from kissing by giving an illustration of "A
malignant disease
here is no longer any doubt in regard
TO the lnoculabiity and infectousness of
consumption 1t is not an established
TACT that 1t is not contagious When Won
remember that more die by its insidious
hands than from any other cause. but few
families or relatives of families can be ex
empt from it. This being true, should
not persons visiting such unfortu-
nate individuals do away with the
accustomed mode of greeting by kissing?
\ disease which has resisted the treatment
OF the most skilled up to the present day
should be prevented if possible Is human
lie to be sacrificed for the sake of con-
forming to custom? hangc the custom.
and other ways of greeting will be equally
popular and much more sensible and safe
The bacillus of phthisS is minute form
Of organized life. which acts so subtly
that the introduction of it into the system
would not be manifested by any immediate
symptoms. AS surely as "a little lcaven
leavencth the whole lump, Just as surely
Will the mlCroScopiCaI germs multiply in
the system in the most marvellous man
ner. soon there will be hacking cough,
| some elevation Of the temperature.
hoarsencss or shallow voice and the work
of destruction now noticeable goes on
until its victim can no longer resist its
invasion, and death claims the victory.
There is "A disease more terrible than the
two previously mentioned 1t is peculiar
to no grade in the social world it is
handed down up TO the third and fourth
generation" when it gets thoroughly seated
in the system, unless treatment be con
tinued for years. 1t is more terrible than
cancer, for that is not hereditary. 1t is
constitutiOnally destructive. while cancer
is more locally SO, 1t eats away the pal
ate, destroys the hearing softens and dis
lntegrates bones, and in its hereditary de
scent produces malformaton of brain and
body. 1t exists very extensively in this
country, but more SO in other parts of the
globe. person may have The appear
atice of health, yet the system may be poi
soncd by it. such IA person ks, ing an
other upon the lips free from the disease
could communicate it. Every physician
has seen these cases in hospitals or ia
private practice. Laying aside the cues
ton of hcrcdity, dissolue husband may
convey it to his wife and she in turn to
her children or lady friends through kiss
inr