The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-08-27
DON'T KISS MY eAeY.
That Ia What Every Mother should Say
to Tier GnsI!ng Friends.

That Ia What Every Mother should Say
to Tier Gushing Friends.
The promiscuous kissing OF children
is pestilent practice, writes physi-
clan in the Old Homestead 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. Do you renem-
Der calling on your dear friend, Mrs.
Brown, the other day, with q strip OF
flannel around your neckP And when
little Flora came dancing into the room,
didn't you pounco upon her demon
stratiyely, call her precious little pet,
and kiss her? Then you serenely pro-
ceeded to describe the dreadful sore
throat that kept you from prayer-meet-
ing the night before. You had no de-
signs on the dear child's life, we know;
nevertheless you killed herl Killed her
as surely as II you had fed her with
strychnine or arsenic.
Your carelessness was fatal. Two or
three days after the little pet began to
complain OF sore throat, too. The
symptoms grew rapidly alarming, and
when tho doctor came the simple word
diphtheria explained them all To-day
little mound is the sole memento OF
your visit. OF course the mother did
not suspect, and would not dare to sus-
pect you OF any instrumentality In her
bereavement. She charges it to mys-
terious providence The doctor says
nothing TO disturb the dclusion-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
stupidity Those are precisely his
words; and who shall say, under the cir
cumstances, that they are not justifi-
able?
1t would be hard to tell how much Of
the prevalent illness and mortality
from diphtheria Is due to such want OF
thought. As rule adults have the
disease in so mild form that they mis-
take it for a simple cold, and as cold is
not contagious, they think not Of ex-
posing others to their breath or the
greater danger OF labial contact. Taking
into consideration tho well-sstablished
fact that diphtheria is usually, II not al
ways, communicated by direct trans
planting OF the malignant vegetation
which causes the disease, the fact that
there can DO no moro certain means OF
bringing the contagion to its favorite
soil than tho act OF kissing, and the
further fact that the kissing Of children
on all occasions is all but universal, 1t
Is not surprising that, when the disease
is once imported into community, 1t is
very likely TO become epidemic.
1t would be absurd to charge the
spread OF diphteria entirely to the prac-
tice OF child-kissing There are other
nodes Of propagation, though it is hard
to conceive Of any more directly suited
TO the spread Of the infection or moro
general in Its operation. 1t stands to
diphtheriai In about the same relation that
promiscuous Misunderstanding formerly did
to the itch. II we're better TO avoid the
practice. The children will not suffer
II they 20 urkissed, 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 a condition to COM
municate the disease without knowing
1t. Beware then ~ pl aging Judas, and
let the babiOs alone.