The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1908-12-29
. EXPLODED SUPERSTITION.


gnpnt and uncanny quality OF thN .u.-
ration which all the old women's
ales of past generations nave held to
e true aud incontrovertible?
tIshysfcisnse nurses and others hav-
ng to, DO Tths tff modern, infant \
cout the ideaAthe' cat can't suck the
baby's breath. for.the sane and saf1'.
lent reason that it isn't able to--so sa,
the medical men.
And opposed to them is the asser
tlon of the old women wiseacres To
be sure, the hoary old folktale of the
cat and the baby no longer is credited
in intelligent circles. and yet 1t even
now creeps into notice. Within the
last two weeks two instances have
been in the public prints Here is the
story from Chippewa Falls. Wis, OF
little Albert Anderson OF the town OF
Sigel, who was discovered in his home
with the cat standing over him suck
ing his breath In the most approved
fashion of the old womans horror
story, accordingto a correspondent,
His mother was aroused by hearing
the boy groan and rushed to him just
az the cat was drawing the lssc breath
from his body. The 5-year-old boy was
unconscious. but was finally revived
by a physician.
Therefore, anathema for the cat
nxvoxy xrfyh ax.fI o,afty thot
sucks the baby's breath,
Then there was another recent news.
| paper story coming out of Fort Smith.
! Arkansas, OF the black cat that crept
into the children's room att he home
of Mrs. Ponsonby. and, leaping on
the crib of the 5-months-old infant,
| drew away its breath and then was
| discovered later standing over a o.
year-old girl. engaged in the same dia.
bolical operation-suclSing the breath
of the sleeping innocent.
"Tommyrot," say the doctors, the
cat can't do It, and that's all there is
to the thing
Old wcmens superstitions die hard !;
before the days of modern medicine
and trained nurses and antiseptic
surgeons and the germ theory, the
care OF the sick and the newly born
was largely in the hands of neighbor.
hood old women in the rural districts
of the United States. They gathered
about the sick bed with the words and
methods OF traditional home rene
dies, YARDS and potions, bleedings
and purgings assisting in the CHASTITY
medical practice of the early half OF
the last century, and of all the cen
turtles that had gone before; and coin
cident with their dominance in the
care of the sick and young, grew up q
mass of ridiculous beliefs. OF which the
cat dealing death to luckless infants
IN the cradle was one Of the strongest
$50 persistent, in fact that We see It
as above, honestly given cut through
the press as authentic.
A few of Milwaukee's representa-
tive physicians were interviewed OF
the cat VS.. the baby superstition, anC
the smile of humor which greeted eaci
propounding of the question showeC
that the harmless, necessary cat o
Shakespeare is not considered facto
in the infant mortality statistics.
TITS impossible" said Dr. A. II. Lev
ings, president Of the Wisconsin Col
lege of Physicians and surgeons. "a
/ cat couldn't stop the breath of a hu
man being by sucking there's moth
ing particularly TO suck. for that mat
ter, and a cat is not so constitute,
that 1t could resolve itself into a sue
, ton pump to draw the air from tn,
lungs OF any other creature"
DR.. H. f. Bradley smiled "Neve
heard of a real case, though the oil,
superstition keeps bobbing up AM
seems to have as many lives as the ca
itself 10 credited with. A few years ag
: physician who was a contributor t
the New York Medical Record grew
so irritated at the cat and baby stor.
! that he sat out to run down every cas-
: the papers printed or he could hea
2 o. He spent months in writing to peo
pie and places where breath-suckin
! cats were reported as getting in thei
/. deadly work and not a single case wa
G he ever able to substantiate. In al
e most every instance the thing was re
, ported as occurring in the rural dis
! tricts and some grandmotherly persol
0 was responsible for the outcry.
+ suppose the family cat would be dis
e covered in the bed OF an infant an
! immediately was suspected of heinou
a designs. In the Investigations of a
l. legged death or sickness from the cat
: influence, not single one was eve
! authenticated in the Medical ReeorC
When you begin to think OF the thoI
tands of cats in thousands OF home
where there are babies and in whic
nothing CT the sort is ever reported