Communion Cup and Hygiene.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1922, Page 1

Communion Cup and Hygiene.

A DOCTOR’S SUSPICION. SYDNEY, August 23. The use of a common Communion Cup has lately been the subject of a good deal of discussion in Sydney. The danger of infection through the practice has been pointed out in a statement bearing the signature of nearly three hundred local doctors.

Those who recommend reform in this direction say that both expediency and necessity justify a change in the Communion Service, so far as the administration of the wine is conoorned, in the existing custom of passing "a chalice from one person to another. The custom is described ns violating all the principles of hygiene and as being contrary to the modern sense of cleanliness.

Attention has been directed to the fact that while the law enforces certain precautionary measures, regarding the cleanliness of drinking vessels in hotels and restaurants, whole congregations of churches .imbued with religious spirit, and probably unaware of the risks they are running drink from a single cup. It nas been shown that all sorts of diseases, including consumption, diphtheria and syphilis, can be contracted in this way. It has been suggested that the possibility of infection is one of the causes of keeping many people from participating in the Communion Service. The likelihood of mouth infection in this way has lately been emphasised by the City Health authorities, who have published the fact that in a quantity of cracked cups they have taken from city restaurants there have been millions of germs representing over a dozen deadly diseases.