MOUTH GERMS by Helen L. Manning

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 42.

MOUTH GERMS.

By Helen L. Manning

BY HELEN L. MANNING.

A FEW years ago a bacteriologist of considerable note published a brochure of a hundred or more pages setting forth the startling discovery (?) that mouth germs were responsible for a long list of evils whose true origin had never before been known. He held that the untold millions of microbes propagated in the mouth from the fermentation and decay of particles of food, which were not removed after eating, were the hitherto unsuspected cause of a large number of physical disorders, and of morbid appetites which craved alcohol and other stimulants, and also of the lust and immorality by which the nation was being corrupted. The easy and certain remedy for most of this viper brood of ills lay in securing aseptic cleanliness for the mouth. Now while I believe in the desirability of strict cleanliness for every portion of the body, and that listerine may be used for washing the mouth and teeth with just as much propriety as soap may be used on the surface of the body, and for the same reason, it hardly seems to me that the one is any more likely to prove a universal panacea or means of grace than the other.

At the time this little book appeared, through false education and unfortunate environment, I was so befogged with germ theories that my intellectual and spiritual vision was dreadfully asquint. In fact, my germ distemper was so bad that it might almost have been called a kind of mania à potu. I knew so many things that were not so that I was in a fever of fear and unhappiness, distrusting the food I ate, the water I drank, and the air I breathed. Sterilization and asepsis were the two most important words in my vocabulary. I groaned with the burden of the thought that the world had been put together so clumsily and managed with so little apparent skill. I had indeed heard that God was omnipotent in goodness, love, and wisdom, and though I might in some faint degree be said to possess the belief, the belief possessed me about as little as it does the great majority of struggling souls to-day. In the midst of the mental malaria from which I was then suffering, I hailed this book with joy, kept one copy for ready reference and hand-to-hand circulation, and started another off by mail destined for a wide circuit from friend to friend. But to my chagrin, the university student to whom I sent it first, laid it away in his desk for a few days to await leisure for its perusal, and when he came to seek it, lo, some mice had been before him and shredded it up into convenient building material for domestic purposes! However, since that time I have become firmly convinced that those mice builded better than they knew, and I have been grateful to them as the instruments which deterred me from sowing widespread seeds of fear which might have ripened into a harvest of disease for later reaping, for such fears usually multiply many fold.

Now there are what may be aptly denominated "mouth germs" which might profitably have engaged the attention of the learned professor, and the first one of these which I will mention, he could have discovered and classified without the aid of his microscope. It is the clinical thermometer in unprofessional hands. It is hardly so common as to be called a fad, but there are men and women foolish enough to keep thermometers for the purpose of testing their own temperature and that of their children. They have got beyond the class who spend the time counting the pulse and looking at the tongue. One mother triumphantly came home with a fever thermometer just as her children were starting away for an afternoon party, and for the sake of showing off her new acquisition, she thrust it in the mouth of her little daughter as the group stood waiting for the carriage. To her consternation the instrument registered 102.5°.

"You are sick, my child," she exclaimed in alarm. "You must go right into the house and go to bed." And this command was enforced despite the tears and protests of the innocent little victim, who declared that she never felt better in her life. The family physician was sent for, and when he arrived he found no trace of fever except that which had resulted from the hysteria due to disappointment and excitement. He sensibly advised the woman to break her thermometer and thereafter to give strict attention to suggesting health to her children and friends instead of disease.

Alcohol and tobacco are two more "mouth germs" against which a crusade is properly waged. The amount of disease and disorder which they breed is incalculable.

Indecent or profane language are "germs" from which every mouth should be cleansed. The most effective asepsis is to establish the thoughts of the heart in purity and truth. "Keep your heart on high."

Symptoms of disease are other "mouth germs" of a dangerous character. They not only befog the atmosphere of the individual himself and tend to strengthen and increase the morbidity already developed, but they are contagious, often affecting a whole neighborhood. Reading medical books and patent medicine advertisements are excellent "cultures" for this species of germ. No glass bell will be required to protect them during incubation.

Dwelling upon trials and afflictions and their constant recital is a class of "germs" closely allied to the above. Mental depression, sighs and tears, form a miasma more deadly and which should be more carefully avoided than that arising from any swamp or marsh. Clear away these mental plague spots and let the sunshine of hope and joy dispel their fatal mists.

"I am afraid" is another "germ" which breeds disease and disorder throughout the whole system. Moreover, it is highly contagious, especially in families, where it often becomes chronic and hereditary. The only real and effective germicide in this case is faith, and it must be used every day.

In truth, it may be said in conclusion that faith in the love, wisdom, omnipotence, and omnipresence of God, is the one germicide to be relied upon for perfect asepsis, far more potent in the mental realm than is bichloride of mercury in the physical.—Journal of Hygiene.