Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-14
PERIL LURKs IN KISSES
From the Chicago Chronicle.

Ius they are reservoirs of incalculablt
numbers upon the lips and counted the
microbes that polluted upon one square
| centlmeter-at least he has tried, for
when he got to 10000 he stopped. Not
all Of these microbes are malignant
however. Some of them are benehcent
but there are millions that may be
! fatal II the klsser or kissee happens to
be too weak to resist them. The nose
and throat are really filters by which
the air in passing Is purified before II
reaches the lungs, and the impurities
taken from the air are left in the Sc
cretions of the throat and nose. Doc
tors and nurses in hospitals habitually
gargle and take nasal douches of pc
roxide Of hydrogen or some other an
tiseptic which destroys the germs
II you are too much in love with
some pair Of lips to rebel against bit
of scientific analysis you may read the
following quotation from DR.. Nalpasse's g
paper if you prefer kisses to health
you had better skip it:
"The microbes increase or decrease
as our atmospheric conditions vary.
People in perfect health may carry
large numbers of pathogenous microbes
in their nasal passages; for instance,
pneumocoques Qhe bacilli Of pneumo-
nia), streptocoques (the bacilli of
erysipelas) and all the suppurative
complications, speudo-diphtheric ba-
cili, the bacilli of Friedlander, differ
ent sorts of staphylocoques (the bacilli
of superficial suppurations of the skin,
such as bolls, carbuncles, flegmons and
gangrene) and many infectious dis
eases.
STRAUSS, who has made very minute
examinations, declares that the bactlli
Of tuberculosis (Koch's bacillD are
found in the people who live among
consumptives, but who are healthy
doctors, nurses, hospital workers, etc.)
Adults with strong constitutions are
lot affected by their microbes, because
they have q counteracting presence,
the phagocytes. The phagocytes destroy
the noxious microbes, but in children
who are weak, notably in infants, they
are defenseless. There is no cooper
alton of the organism to back them,
and therefore the microbes proceed with
their deadly ork. There are microbes
which subsist a relatively long time in
the mouth of child and they may re-
main there even after the disease
caused by them is cured.
"Loeffler's bacillus (the bacillus of
diphtheria) may be found in the mouths
of people who have had diphtheria long
children cured of diphtheria are a me-
mace to the little ones with whom they
come in contact"
This, however, will be comforting to
children, for children really hate to be
kissed, and submit to it only as patient
martyrs.
DR.. Nalpasse advises mothers not only
to refrain from kissing their babies,
but to disinfect them whenever they
have been out for an airing, washing
their mouths with soap and water and
little faces and hands with a wash COM
posed of equal parts of tepid water and
tincture of quillaya. Immediately
after this BATH" he continues, pass
over all the parts so washed a lotion
made as follows: One gram of thymol,
menthol and salol, 10 grams of benzoic
acid, IL grams of essence of violets dis
solved in 25O grams of alcohol Cos de-
grees), mixed with a solution composed
of 10 grams of bicarbonate of soda and
Is grams of boracic acid dissolved in
1850 grams of distilled water. A simple
filtering will make this lotion clear and
limpid."