Daily Capital Journal, Salem, Oregon, February 7, 1923

Has anyone heard of this before? Apparently it was a pretty common way for parents to test if their children had the mumps (or adults to test themselves). They’d give them a pickle to bite (or, I guess in this instance, smell) and it would affect the salivary glands. If you had a stronger than usual reaction - not just face contorting but almost yelling in pain - to the sour flavour, you probably had the mumps (or so the idea was).