KISSING DANGERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13781, 20 June 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

KISSING DANGERS.

DOCTOR'S CRUSADE AGAINST THE CUSTOM. /: Dr. Romjik, tho eminent French writer and propounder of the theory that the sex of the weaker parent determines thesex of children, embarks on a new crusade in the current number of L'Opinion, in an article containing some "elementary; truths" on kissing. "It is the physician's privilege and duty," he writes, "to call things by their name, and we must bo allowed to say that kissing consists of depositing some saliva on the lips or cheeks of another person. Here are some facts gathered by myself which prove that a kiss has often been the cause of terrible diseases: — "A child was playing in a public park. He fell, and his cheek was grazed. A kind-hearted lady who witnessed tho accident took a piece of sticking plaster and applied it on to the child's cheek*. She had licked it. Six weeks later the child had an ugly sore on that very spot. He had contracted a dangerous disease which he had caught from that kind lady. "A similar thing happened to a boy who had been given, a trumpet. To show him how to blow, a diseased person blew the instrument and then handed itand the disease —to the child. The case of the young bride who was kissed by her friends after the ceremony at the church, and who died of a contagious disease thus contracted, is still in all Parisian memories. " Thousands of instances could be given of cases where tuberculosis was spread by kisses. I have attended a young man whom I knew to be quite healthy. When he came to me he had intense phthisis. I discovered that he was engaged to a young ladv who was consumptive. In a public library four successive librarians died of tuborculosis. It was found that the first of the four, who had phthisis, used to lick his fingers when turning the leaves of the catalogue. His successor did the same. The pages . were covereetSj!rj.th- a bacilli of tuberculosis. " We--' : ihust not allow our children to bo kissed by strangers; we must be very careful about the persons who kiss us or .whom we kiss."