Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-08-07
ension Claim.
DON'T KISS MY BAsY.
That Is What Every Mother Should
Say to Her Gushing Friends. -

@s-N~N - ~ nav NLOluCE 6nOulu
Say to Her Gushing Friends. -
The promiscuous kissing of children
Is pestilent practice, writes a physic-
Ian In the Old Homestead. We use
the word advisedly, and 1t Is mild for
the occasion. Murderous would be the
proper word, did the kissers know the
mischief they do. Do you remember
calling on your dear friend, Mrs. Brown.
the other day, with q red flannel
around your neck? 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 meeting the
night before. You had no designs on
the dear child's life, we know, never
theless you killed her! Killed her as
surely as If you had fed her with strych-
nine or arsenic. .ft,5'.
Your carelessnes was fatal. Two or
three days after the little pet began to
complain of q sore throat, too. The
symptoms grew rapidly alarming, and
when the doctor came the simple word
diptheria explained them all. To-day
a 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 a mys-
terious providence. The doctor says
nothing to disturb the delusion-that
would be impolitic IL not cruel-but to
an outsider he is free to say that the
child's death was due directly to your
0fnn1nifu L a.
words; and who shall say, under the
able?
It would be hard to tell how much
of the prevalent illness and mortality
is due to such want of thought. AS a
rule adults have the disease in 90 mild
a form that they mistake 1t for a sim
pie cold, and as cold is not contag-
ious, they think not of exposing Others
to their breath, or the greater danger of
labial contact. Taking into considera-
tion the well established fact that Dip
iberia Is usually, If not always, COM
municated by direct transplanting Of
the malignant vegetation which causes
the disease, the fact that there can be
no 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, it is not surprising
that, when the d sease 10 once imported
into community, 1t is very likely to
become epidemic. s1.a ..
It would be absurd to charge the
spread of diptheria entirely to the prac-
tice Of child-kissing. There are other
modes of propagation, though it il
hard to conceive Of any more directly
suited to the spread of the infection OF
more general in it's operation. Il
stands to diptheria in about the
same relation that promiscuous hand
shaking formerly did to the itch. II
were better to avoid the practice. The
children will not suffer if they go un.
kissed, and their friends ought for theil
sake to forego the luxury for season
A single kiss has been known to infect
family, and the most careful may be
in condition to communicate the dis
ease without knowing it. Beware ther
of playing Judas, and let the babies
alone.