Honour to whom honour is due. The Chimpanzee seems to have been the
first who discovered the charm of mutual labial contact. In the
description by Mr. Bartlett just referred to, the two Chimpanzees “sat
opposite, touching each other with their much-protruded lips.” And in
some notes on the Chimpanzee in Central Park, New York, by Dr. C.
Pitfield Mitchell, published in the _Journal of Comparative Medicine and
Surgery_, January 1885, we find the following: “That tender emotions are
experienced may be inferred from the fact that he pressed the kitten to
his breast and kissed it, holding it very gently in both hands. In
kissing, the lips are pouted and the tongue protruded, and both are
pressed upon the object of affection. The act is not accompanied by any
sound, thus differing from ordinary human osculation.”
Dogs, especially when young, may be seen occasionally exchanging a sort
of tongue-kiss; and who has not seen dogs innumerable times make a
sudden sly dash at the lips of master or mistress and try to _steal_ a
kiss? The affectionate manner in which a cow and calf eagerly lick one
another in succession may be regarded as quite as genuine a kiss as a
human kiss on hand, forehead, or cheek; and it is probable that even in
the billing of doves the motive is a vague pleasure of contact.