Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1879 — Kissing Pets a Cause of Sore Throat. [ARTICLE]

Kissing Pets a Cause of Sore Throat.

A wiiter in the British Medical Journal, in a communication to the editor in regard to the possible cause of the recent outbreak of an epidemic of sore throat at Darmstadt, says: “It is well known that women and chi d ren are in the habit of kissing pet cats and dogs, especially when these favorites are ill with discharge from the nose, cough, and sore throat, and even use their pocket handkerchiefs to wij.e away the secretion. I have seen this done irequently. As such mstaken sympathy is exceedingly dangerous, I think a notice in the Journal to this effect would tend to its discouragement. It is a common saying that, “There! the cat has got a col J; now it will go through the house;” and as this r mark has been repeatedly verified, it shows how careful people should be to avoid contact with such a mode of contagion. Ido not affirm that this was the way in which the disease was contracted, either within or without the palace walls, but I feel sure the habit of kissing pets is a source of danger that should be widely known and prevented.

A pedometer 1? a machine to accurately measure the distance a person walks in a given time. When a business man, after supper, Saturday eve nlng, told his wife he was “only going down to his office to square up the books,” she slylyjattached a pedometer to his leg. and when he returned she discovered that the office was fifteen miles from*the house. P.&.—A night at billiards entails considerable pedestrianism. Orwin keeps them foa sale.