DANGERS OF KISSING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1395, 1 November 1886, Page 2

DANGERS OF KISSING.

Medical Record The custom of ki-stng has been condemned by the wise and frowned upon by the re igious, but haa managed to thrive despite it all, and is still love’s great artillery and best ally. Why tactile se: ■ sations from a limited labial surface have bee n found so very agreeable, and why they should have contributed «o much to the poetry and pairing off of the bnmac race, are questions quite worthy of full discussion. Kissing, we are told, began tvith the birds and reaches its most perfect evolution in man. It haa a long history, therefore, and may well be considered a permanent feature in human society—solacing grief, ingreasing j ys, promoting wedding engagements and furnishing a permanent source of inspiration f n r the artist. But an enemy to the kiss has appeared in Washington, D. 0,, in the person of Dr Samuel S. .Adams, who devotes seven columns of the Journal of the American Medical Association to expesmg the “ dangers of kissing ” Everything has its dark side. The dark side of kissing, as viewed by Dr Adam*, is both morel and physical. Among women and between children and adults it has degenerated into an insincere, umoaning and commonplace salutation when ii should be reserved only as an index of affectionate feeling. Bub the weight of the doctor’s argument is expended in showing the possible evils which come from the promiscuous kissing of babies and children by adults. Tuberculosis, diphtheria, infections fevers, oancrum oris, rupture of the tympanum — all are possible on' actual results of kissing. 4 veritable instance is cited, in which the dram) of the ear was rup ured by a kiss applied to the external auricular appendage. A kiss of such suction force reminds one of Benedict’s, which had such a clamorous smack that, at the parting, all the j church did echo.” Although we may not realizs tv? he does the wl lespreatl and . endemic character of the kissing habit in Washington, we can only trust it will prove a safe place for the international Congress.