rom
syphilis by giving the father the benefit of our knowledge. The child
who reaped his sowing gained nothing morally, and lost its physical
heritage. Its mother lost her health and perhaps her self-respect.
Neither one contributes anything through syphilis to the uplifting of
the race. They are so much dead loss. To teach us to avoid such losses
is the legitimate field of preventive medicine.

On this simplified and practical basis, then, the remainder of this
discussion will proceed. Syphilis is a preventable disease, usually
curable when handled in time, and its successful management will depend
in large part upon the cooeperation, not only of those who are victims of
it, but of those who are not. It is much more controllable than
tuberculosis, against which we are waging a war of increasing
effectiveness, and its stamping out will rid humanity of an even greater
curse. To know about syphilis is in no sense incompatible with clean
living or thinking, and insofar as its removal from the world will rid
us of a revolting scourge, it may even actually favor the solution of
the moral problems which it now obscures.

Chapter III

The Nature and Course of Syphilis

The simplest and most direct definition of syphilis is that it is a
contagious constitutional disease, due to a germ, running a prolonged
course, and at one time or another in that course is capable of
affecting nearly every part of the body. One of the most important parts
of this rather abstract statement is that which relates to the germ. To
be able to put one's finger so definitely on the cause of syphilis is an
advantage which cannot be overestimated. More than in almost any other
disease the identification of syphilis at its very outset depends upon
the seeing of the germ that causes it in the discharge from the sore or
pimple which is the first evidence of syphilis on the body. On our
ability to recognize the disease as syphilis in the first few days of
its course depends the greatest hope of cure. On the recognition of the
germ in the tissues and fluids of the body has depended our knowledge of
the real extent and ravages of the disease. With the knowledge that the
germ was related to certain other more familiar forms, Ehrlich set the
trap for it that culminated in salvarsan, or "606," the powerful drug
used in the modern treatment. By the finding of this same germ in the
nervous system in locomotor ataxia and general paralysis of the insane,