Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1900-08-10

Prof. Lombroso Traces Il From
the Earliest Times to
Robson.

The epidemic of kisses which at-
tended Lieut.. Hobson s tour after
his sinking Of the Merrimac was
the subject Of worldwide comment
and not a little unkind criticism.
In the August number OF the Pail
Mall Gazette Prof. Caesar Jom-
broso, the eminent Italian criminol-
ogist and psychologist, comes to
the rescue of the brave lieutenant
and his admirers in a remarkable
and extremely interesting article,
in which he treats the phenomenon
from a pathological standpoint un-
der FIVE headings, as follows; First,
Anglo-Saxou reserve; second, ma
ternal, origin of the kiss; third,
suggestibility of the crowd; fourth,
the kiss, an emblem of veneration;
fifth, Hobson worthy Of enthusiasm.
Prof. Lombroso thinks that ''the
notwithstanding ardor kind
led in the United States by the in
famies of Spain, so contrary to
American feeling and tradition, y
was a subsidiary cause of the mani
festation which, he goes on to say,
''loses much OF its indelcacy when
we remember that the kiss may
bear many interpretations besides
that of love. 1t has been said that
the kiss is the symbol of love and
respect, oftriendship and gratitude;
that it is a token of peace and
charity, that it has somewhat the
nature of a pledge. We see, there
fore, that above and beyond the
maternal and the amorous the kiss
is a symbol of respect and venera-
tion, and we may add of fellowship.
st. Paul exhorted his followers to
kiss in token of fellowship: 'Greel
ye one another with an holy kiss.
Down to Homeric times the kiss
bore a solely maternal significance.
Thus, in Homer, ''kuveos meant
only the kiss of father to child, or
the kiss of the supplicant, like the
Proci, who kiss the hands OF Ulysses.
The kiss never occurs N the love
scenes between Venus and Mars,
Ulysses and Circe or Paris and
Helen Iliad, iii.), nor yet between
Hera and Laos, who are distinctly
depicted as in the bonds of love
Iliad, XIV. In the scene with
Andromache, Hector consoles her
not with a kiss, but with caress
of his hand. Even in the ancient
Egyptian the definitions of kiss
excepting "hach, which is an OBJ
scure point refer to"embrace " and
not to kissing with the lips.
In ancient Sanskrit poetry, again,
the kiss is always maternal, and
the "kusiani" (Sanskritfor "kiss')
is exclusively flial, although later
books 90 so far as to diiferentiate
twelve varieties of the kiss.
The wife ofCalifa, in he"Ramaya-
ma, bewslllng his death, recalls
The hand, not the lips, that caressed
her. So also the wife OF the king of
Cambodia, while the father, Bali,
kisses his son. And again, "And
the mother licked her son 5 face
with her tongue, and made lamen-
tation like a yearning COW bereft Of
her calf, the father fondling him the
while (Gorresio, vol. l, page 393.)
1t would seem, then, that the kiss,
which among ancient and unciyiiz-
ed people is unknown as a symbol
and harbinger of love, spring from
The entirely maternal act, of feeling
commonly practiced by the birds,
and very frequently, too, by sava-
ges. We are told that the Fne-
gians do not use any kind of cup,
but assuage their thirst by suck
ing up water from the spring
through a reed. A child would die
of thirst if the mother did not sup
ply his needs by hlling her own
mouth with water, and thence in
PRODUCING it into the mouth of her
own mouth with water, ami thence
introducing it into the mouth of her
babe. From this act the first kiss
was probably involved-A kiss not
amorous, therefore, but materna AL.
Children kiss only when they have
been taught to do so, and not before
they have attained the age of six
months.
AS a mark of reverence it is vet