Life — July 24, 1931 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# On the Rim of a Glass This is a public health advertisement by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company warning against sharing drinking glasses. The dramatic photograph shows a hand holding a glass with visible bacterial colonies grown from mouth secretion—a scientific visualization meant to shock viewers. The text cites Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming regarding communicable diseases spread through common drinking cups. The ad notes that only two U.S. states had banned public drinking glasses, though many establishments still used them unsafely. The message was straightforward health advocacy: germs are invisible but deadly, and shared drinking glasses spread diseases like respiratory infections and contagious illnesses. The appeal to "complete public support and universal personal cooperation" urged readers to reject the common drinking cup entirely—a practical public health campaign presented through dramatic visual evidence.