cumstances and on
differences in the course of the disease. This does not, however,
conceal the tragedy expressed in the statement that, under anything but
the most expert care, more than 75 per cent of the children born with
syphilis die within the first year of life. Good estimates show that
more often 95 per cent than fewer of untreated children die. Such
figures as those of Still are not at all exceptional--of 187 children of
syphilitic parents, born or unborn, 113 were lost, whether by
miscarriage, still-birth, or in spite of treatment after they were born.
It is estimated that not more than 28 per cent of syphilitic children
survive their first year. Those that survive the first year seem to have
a fighting chance for life. Statistics based on over 100,000 cases show
that about one child in every 148 from two to twelve years of age has
hereditary syphilis. Realizing the difficulty in recognizing the disease
by examination alone, it is entirely safe to suppose that the actual
figures are probably higher. The statistics given at least illustrate
how few syphilitic children survive to be included in such an estimate.

+Moral Effect on the Parents.+--The real extent of the damage done by
the disease as a cause of death in infancy is scarcely appreciated from
figures alone. There is something more to be reckoned with, which comes
home to every man or woman who has ever watched for the birth of a child
and planned and worked to make a place for it in the world. The loss or
crippling of the new-born child jars the character and morale of the
father and mother to the root. When the object of these ideals dies,
something precious and irreplaceable is taken from the life of the
world. The toll of syphilis in misery, in desolation, in
heart-breakings, in broken bonds and defeated ideals can never be
estimated in numbers or in words.

+Course of Hereditary Syphilis in the Infant.+--The course of syphilis
in the child tends to follow certain general lines. The disease, being
contracted before birth, shows its most active manifestations early in
life. The stillborn child is dead of its disease. The living child may
be born with an eruption, or it may not develop it for several weeks or
months. It is thought by some that these delayed eruptions represent
infections at birth. Hereditarily syphilitic children are filled with
the spirochetes, the germs of the disease. They are in every tissue and
organ; the child is literally ridd