The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-01
IS KISSING UNHEALTHY
A Physician's Opinion That 1t Is Not if
 the Lady is Pretty.
IFrom the Chicago Tribune.l

From the Chicago Tribune.l
 Several Chicago physicians whose names are familiar to the readers oi the Tribune were shown a dispatch from Detroit printed in these columns containing the news that an anti-kiss' ing club had been organized in the City of the Straits based upon opinions oi medical men of that town to the effect that kissing Is an unsanitary pleasure and should stop. One of the doctors quoted said, "The sooner people are ed ucated against kissing the better for the community at large. Frequently in my practice I have been called to at tend patients suffering from the most revolting skin and blood diseases re- sulting from kissing. Eczema and oth- CT chronic skin troubles, cold sores as they are commonly called, diphtheria, thrush, diseases of the tonsils, and even tuberculosis, have frequently produced corresponding diseases in some one the sick person has kissed"
 It Is a matter of regret that no Chfca- go physician seen by the Tribune was willing to have his name appear on the question at issue. One of the oldest and highest esteemed of those asked read the dispatch carefully, and with the reservation referred to said: "All depends upon the person to be kissed. Old as I am, if beautiful woman should court my attention in that di- rection must say I would yield to the temptation and never stop to think of In tV1Ir be carried to excess. I would say to those who ask me about 1t professional ly, Choose your subject
 A young, and what women would call handsome. doctor in one of the sky scrapers on Washington street said 1t depended upon the location of the oscu- lation and the duration. Unless" he continued, "the person kissed has some contagious disease a kiss upon the fore head, or cheek, or hand would have no evil consequences It is the long, lin- gering kiss between lips and lips that Is unsanitary. And yet those who indulge in such could not be induced to give 1t up no matter what might follow"
 A middle-aged doctor on Wabash av- enue, not far from Jackson street, said: q have never yet known a man who stopped to consider whether kissing was unhealthy. As for women, it de- bends upon who the man is, But what is the use of going into the subject? You cannot organize a society that will stop it, and as for legislating against it you might as well try to freeze the lake from shore to shore"
 An old bachelor doctor in the Chicago Opera House building said rather bluntly: "No harm in kissing that know of. It's the huggin'. That's what causes the trouble"
 Inquiry was run in another channel with various results. A South Side wo- man who is the mother of bevy of marriageable daughters confessed that when she remembered the days of her engagement with her husband she didn't have the heart to enforce an em- bargo on her daughters It was an equally clever woman who said to her daughter as the latter was going to the parlor to meet her aff1anced, NO kiss ing" and as the girl went away the mother added: Don't let me hear of It." To which the wicked daughter re- plied: You won't hear, mamma, l promise you"
 The kissing of babies by most adults is a habit, to a great extent. Neigh borhood feuds have been created by persons who refused to kiss little ones.