Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-16
KISSING THE BIBLE.
The Custom Falling Into Disuse Because
Ii May Transmit Disease.
FROM the New York Graphic.

FROM the New York Graphic
Tne medical journals are agitating the dam
gers which Turk in the greasy and worn backs
OF the court Bibles. The practice Of kissing
the book" comes down from the days of colo
NAL custom, but It is at no time compulsory,
although the unihitiated know no better, and
even some Of the,most intelligent people, who
know that it is optional with them, seem to
lose their self possession, and at the command
of the court baliff "kiss the book" they do go.
| New Jersey physician is reported to have
refused to kiss the book, /" but was compelled
to comply with the requirements. Jersey law
must be very old fashioned and rigid, or no
| ruling would have followed the refusal In
the courts OF several states any one may refuse
to do SO, and in many of the states the Bible is
to hold up his right hand and solemn1y swear
that he will ''tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth" and even then if
he has any conscientious scruples against this
form he may affirm"
The practice of kissing the book ia rapidly
falling into disrepute everywhere. First, be-
cause the same book that is kissed by dis
eased lips is offered to the clearly and self
respecting. and often the witness whose
stomach turns against the osculatory ordeal
merely goes through the motion of putting the
book toward the lips, without actual contact
The man with the mustache apparently sub
mlts, but the book only touches the capillary
substance, and is passed on to the next witness
or juror. In some instances, if the Bible is
not bound with elastic bands, it is not uncom-
mon for the one taking the oath to open the
book and kiss some printed page. This is the
presidential custom, and the lvnx-eyed re-
porters watch closely and report that passage
of scripture which the presidential lips have
kissed.
The Bible used by President Cleveland when
he took the oath of Office was small morocco
covered Bible, well worn, with gilt edges It
was the Bible given to him by his mother when,
as a young man, he left home to become the
architect of his own destiny, and it was at his
ments had it in readiness when the chief JUS
tee of the United States came forward to ad-
minister the oath of the high Office to which he
had been called.
The origin of the oath upon the Bible has
been traced to the old Roman law. and the
kissing of the book is said to be an imitation
OF the priest kissing the ritual as sign of rev.
erence before he reads it to the people. Bou-
vlers Law Dictionary says: 1.-THE commence
ment OF an oath is made by the party taking
hold OF the book, after being required by the
officer to do so, and ends generally with the
words so help you God and kissing the book,
when the form is that Of swearing on the evan
gelists."
In Protestant courts Jews usually decline to
be sworn on the Bible if it includes the New
Testament, and they very rarely kiss the
book" although the Jews from the earliest
period were sworn on the Pentateuch, They
had, however, like the Greeks and Romans,
two forms OF oaths, known as the greater and
lesser oath. The lesser oath was by Jerusalem,
the temple, heaven or the altar; but their most
solemn oaths were when they laid their hand
upon the book Of the law and sworn by the
God of Israel. The Mohammedans are sworn
on the Koran, and the Greeks and Romans
swore by the souls of the dead, the ashes Of
their fathers, by their own lives or the lives of
their friends, by their heads and by their right
hands, while among Scandinavians and Ger
mans it was customary to rest the hand upon
some object while repeating the oath.
When it is considered that people diseased
and dirty, kiss the Bible in our lower and
higher courts, with a resounding smack, and
that by this contact disease may be dissemi-
mated to the very sensitive organs. the lips
there Is good reason for the medical Journals
to open war on the custom of ''kissing the
book" The Medical Register of recent date
says: THE kissing of the Bible in any case is
form which might easily, without the sacrifice
OF solemnity or of the structure of an oath, be
set aside in favor of simply touching of the
book with the hand or recognition of it in the
ayerratlon. The lips are most sensitive recep-
tacles for the germs of disease and, from the
motley throng of dirty and diseased persons
who are summoned in court of Justice. what
infectious germs may not be disseminated?
The person who kisses a Bible in court has not
the least surety that his lips do not come in di-
rect contact with the pollution left by prede-
cessor who was suffering from some foul skin
disease or faint not to speak of the germs Of
eruptive fevers and the like"