The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-08-20
DON'T KISS MY BABY.
That Is Whist Every Mother should So
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That Is What Every Mother should Say
60 Tier S'sahsny Friends. ANg
The promiscuous kissing Of children
Is q pcstilent practice, writes phYsi-
clan in the Old llomes;cad We use the
word adyisedly, and u is mild for the
occasion. Murderous would be the
proper word, Cid the k:sscrs know the
mischief they DO. Do you remem-
Der calling on your dear friend, Mrs.
Brown, the other day, with strip Of
flannel around your neckp And when
little Flora came dancing into the room,
didn't you pounce upon her demon
stratively, 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, wo 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 the doctor came the simple word
diphtheria explained them all. To-day
alittle mound is the sole memento Of
your visit or course the mother did
not suspect, and would not dare to sus-
pect you Of any instrumentality In her
bereavement. She charges 1t TO mys-
terious providence, The doctor says
nothing 70 disturb the dolusion-that
would be impolitic II not cruel-but TO
an outsider he Is free to say that the
child's death was duo directly to your
stupidity Those are precisely his
words; and who shall say, under the cir
cumstanccs, that thoy are not justih-
ablep
II would be hard TO tell how much Of
the prevalent illness and mortality
from diphtheria is due to such want Of
thought. AS q rule adults have the
disease in so mild form that they mis-
take 1t for 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-established
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 be TO more certain means OF
bringing the contagion to Its favorite
. soil than the 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 a community, II Is
very likely to become epidemic.
II would bo absurd to charge the
spread Of diphteria entirely to the prac-
tice Of child-Lissing There are other
nodes OF propagation, though 1t is hard
to conceive OF any more directly suited
to the spread Of the infection or more
general in It's operation. II stands to
diphtheria in about the same relation that
promiscuous hand-shskins formerly did
10 tho itch. II were better TO avoid the
practice. The children will not suffer
il they go unkissed, and their friends
ought for their sake 20 forego the luxury
for a season. a single kiss has been
known 20 infect family, and the most
careful may be in condition to com
municate the disease without knowing
it. Beware then ~ pl aging Judas, and
let the babies alone.