| No one really knows how it all started. | | | | on the subject of kissing. One of the lesser-known |
| Oneless-than-romantic theory is that it was originally a | | | | works is The Art of Kissing, written by Hugh Morris in |
| preamble to the act of regurgitation. In the days before | | | | 1936. The book analyses every aspect of the kiss and |
| Heinz baby food, spoons and Moulinex blenders, cave | | | | an entire chapter is devoted to How to Kiss Girls with |
| mothers fed their young offspring by chewing morsels | | | | Different Sizes of Mouth - a useful manual for any |
| of food, liberally drenched with saliva, and poking the | | | | man confronted with the voluminous, bee-stung lips of |
| masticated mess into their mouths with their tongues. | | | | today's collagen-implanted females. |
| Anthropologists pooh-pooh this theory saying that, if | | | | "A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop |
| this was the case, mouth kissing would have gone on | | | | speech when words become superfluous."- Ingrid |
| in all societies and eras, which it did not. In parts of | | | | Bergman |
| Japan, Siberia and among the Eskimo culture, rubbing | | | | If kissing was slow to catch on in evolutionary terms, |
| noses was, until modern times, the only kind of kissing | | | | scientists concede that it has become part of "natural" |
| that went on. Certain ancient Finnish tribes believed | | | | human behaviour today. In trials they have found that, |
| kissing to be distasteful and indecent, even though they | | | | when seeing a woman he is attracted to, a man's |
| happily bathed naked together. In Asia, for centuries, | | | | saliva fills with the male hormone testosterone. Kissing |
| the bow was the traditional greeting and kissing would | | | | passes some of those hormones on to the female, |
| only go on in private. In Roman times, kissing was an | | | | making her more in the mood for love. |
| act of homage used to denote status, ranked by the | | | | According to another survey, people who kiss their |
| body parts someone was permitted to kiss. Important | | | | partners goodbye when they leave for work in the |
| nobles kissed cheeks or hands while lesser mortals | | | | morning tend to earn much higher salaries than those |
| had to make do with feet kissing. | | | | who don't. |
| However, somehow, lip contact caught on and soon | | | | And the scientist who said not all of us kiss the right |
| became more adventurous. According to Chinese Tao | | | | way? He was Professor Onur Gunturkun from |
| tradition, a perfect balance of yin and yang is only | | | | Germany's Ruhr University who discovered that two |
| achieved with an exchange of "liquid jade" - more | | | | thirds of people tilt their heads to the right when kissing, |
| prosaically-known as saliva. Or what we would call a | | | | which means that the other one third who tilt their |
| French kiss. | | | | heads to the left are not doing it the "right" |
| "I have found men who didn't know how to kiss. I've | | | | way… |
| always found time to teach them." - Mae West | | | | Sta-kiss-stics |
| Kissing, in the days before toothpaste and dental floss, | | | | At the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in 1990, Alfred |
| must have been a grim affair. To make it more | | | | Wolfram from New Brighton, kissed 8001 people in 8 |
| palatable, young maids would carry a clove-studded | | | | hours - over sixteen people a minute. |
| apple when courting, exchanging a bite for a kiss. The | | | | Between 1st and 6th May 1978 Americans Bobbi |
| apple helped to clean the suitor's teeth and the cloves | | | | Sherlock and Ray Blazina held a kiss-in that lasted for |
| to sweeten his breath. Perhaps Clark Gable should | | | | 130 hours and 2 minutes. |
| have taken a leaf out of that particular history book | | | | In 1896, John C. Rice and May Irwin became the first |
| when filming Gone With the Wind. Reportedly, his | | | | couple to be recorded kissing in a film called The Kiss. |
| screen lover Vivien Leigh didn't want to kiss him | | | | The longest kiss in film history was between Jane |
| because he had halitosis. | | | | Wyman and RayTooney in the 1941 film, You're in the |
| Kissing has not always been socially acceptable. In 16th | | | | Army Now. The kiss lasted three-and-a-half minutes. |
| century Naples, it was an offence that carried the | | | | According to legend, any person who kisses the |
| death penalty. In Hartford, Connecticut, an old law still | | | | Blarney Stone at Cork's 15th century Blarney Castle |
| makes it illegal for a man to kiss his wife on a Sunday. | | | | will be endowed with the gift of eloquence and |
| And in Indiana there used to be a law preventing men | | | | persuasive flattery. |
| with moustaches from kissing, presumably on the | | | | Chile holds the world record for the largest number of |
| grounds of hygiene. | | | | people kissing, set in 2004 in the capital of Santiago |
| Countless poems, odes and books have been written | | | | when 4,400 kissing couples locked lips en masse. |