impunity, while others will
destroy the strongest man, regardless of all treatment, so some spirochaetae
or gonococci may be safely disposed of, while others are most deadly.

Of all the sad instances of germ infection, the saddest are those from
venereal germs, for they are disseminated mostly in vice, and inoculated
into the innocent through ignorance. A common cause of infection of the
innocent is the false popular belief that venereal germs are transmitted
only in sexual congress. The truth is that any part of the body is in
danger of inoculation from syphilis if the germ be virulent. So may any
membranous point be infected by the gonococcus, whether conveyed by hand
or instrument or fabric. This explains the number of gonococcic infections
occurring in girl children. They come in membranous contact (at the outlet
of vagina or rectum, or in the eye) with a contaminated article of
clothing, or with the contaminated hands of an infected person. Ignorance
is the cause of nearly all venereal infections. Why, then, should venereal
infection not be eradicated? With adequate education, if there is not
eradication, there will at least be compensation, for the sacrifice will
be mainly of those who will not accept education--the unfit.

The possibility of recovery from syphilis is greater at present than it
has been in the past, but we cannot yet say that the disease is absolutely
curable in a given case. While most cases treated early with salvarsan,
and followed by judicious use of mercury, are curable, there are
nevertheless those which do not thus respond, and which in spite of all
treatment go from bad to worse, till the patient's miseries are ended in
insanity, paralysis, and death.

While the venereal diseases are the greatest physical evils to be
attributed to sex ignorance, there are others chargeable to the same
cause. There are, for instance, important physiological phenomena
pertaining to sex development, ignorance of which is often baneful to the
developing adolescent of either sex. When the boy's voice begins to
change, and hair begins to appear on his face and body, and more thrilling
sensations occasionally command his attention, he should be told, modestly
but distinctly, that a pure and manly function is developing within him,
the sole object of which is reproduction, and he must not consider it in a
vulgar way, nor discuss it with others than his parents or physician or
minister. Tell him that these physi