The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-23

The British Medical Journal has
some sensible observations TO make on
| the practice of kissing the book
when an oath is taken. This unclean-
| ly and disgusting requirement has come
down to us from medieval times, when
people were not so particular about
cleanliness as they are now, and mi
crobes were not yet heard of. 1t is
said that the members of the Legion
Medical Society have agreed that they
| will invariably adopt the Scotch
| FORM which does not require kissing
the Bible. and the Medical Journal
suggests that all medical societies
might profitably follow the example of
| this one.
The statement has recently been
made that the two Testaments in the
city of London court are kissed by
thirty thousand persons annually, and
a police court usher says that the COW
ers of his New Testament have been
worn smooth by the lips of nearly fifty
thousand persons annually.
1t is not necessary TO be a microbe
fiend to see the uncleanliness of this
custom. There have been people who
have carried their anti-microbe preju-
dice so far as to scrub their coin with
soap and water. and wash and iron
their greenbacks, which seems a little
| unnecessary Notwithstanding the dis
gushing habit which some other people
have of placing coins in their mouths
for safe-keeping while making change.
But in this day of enlightenment on
sanitary matters 1t should be a truism
that whatever touches the lips or en-
tiers the mouth should be clean, and
that, so far as possible the air that we
breathe should be pure. If these two
matters are attended to, and IL the
care of the person, in matters of bath
ing, diet, and clothing. is given a rea-
sonable amount Of attention. it is I'M
likely that microbes which touch the
hands in casual contact will do much
harm.
But the custom of kissing the Bible
is relic OF the Dark Ages. In those
days people would travel long dis
tances to kiss bones which had al
ready been kissed by few thousand
and cleanliness, and so far from consid-
ering that they We're hurt by the pro-
cess. they considered themselves purer
and better for it, II cannot be known at
this late day whether the pilgrimages
OF the Middle Ages had anything TO do
with spreading smallpox and the
plague, but considering the customs of
the time, they probably did. The only
quarantine observed in those days was
the very primitive one of running away
from a man in whom disease was OBJ
viously present. If he had a mild case
of il he might sleep on the rush-strewn
floor with other wayfarers, and nobody
would know. Naturally, in days when
disease was regarded as a visitation
from heaven, against which nobody
could guard, it was not TO be supposed
that kissing so holy an object as the
Bible could do anybody any harm. The
microbe theory is child of the nine
teenth century, and up To the year 1900.
and later, the idea of the transmission
of disease in any such way would have
been secuted. But it is time to abolish
this particular court custom, and allow
anyone who wishes To take the oath
without II. He will be quite as likely !
not TO perjure himself as if he added
his kiss to the forty or fifty thousand
already bestowed upon the court Bible. |