this is
very serious; you have got a couple of thousand illegitimate children,
and by bringing them into a place like this you are only encouraging
illegitimacy!" And he said to me, "Well, Mrs. Burgwin, is not that
better than what you do in England? There, even your married people
murder the children."'

{44}

V

There is another cause of the falling birthrate which I will only
indicate. However necessary it may be to look facts in the face, there
are facts so ugly that they do not bear even contemplation. One great
cause of the fall in the birthrate is the social disease. One or two
quotations must suffice.

'I hold,' says Dr. Ballantyne, 'that in a given family, if syphilis
enters it, it is the most deadly thing for the future of that family.'

'Have you any idea about the proportion of antenatal deaths which are
due to syphilis?' 'Of course, one's idea is,' answered Dr. Amand
Routh, 'that it is an enormous proportion--perhaps one-fourth....'

'Dr. Willey was of opinion that probably 32.8 per cent. of the total
still-births were due to syphilis.'

'I would hold the view that it is a considerable proportion,' says Dr.
Ballantyne, {45} 'founding upon Fournier's evidence in France, where he
speaks broadly of families being swept out of existence before birth by
syphilis.'

'We have been recently told that there are 500,000 fresh cases of
syphilis yearly in this country and three times that number of cases of
gonorrhea.'

It is the opinion of Sir William Osler that of all the killing diseases
syphilis comes third or fourth.[3] 'While we have been unable,' says
the Commission on the subject, 'to arrive at any positive figures, the
evidence we have received leads us to the conclusion that the number of
persons who have been infected with syphilis, acquired or congenital,
cannot fall below 10 per cent. of the whole population in the large
cities, and the percentage affected with gonorrhea must greatly exceed
this proportion.' Regarding all that, one can only re-echo the words
of Sir Thomas Barlow: 'I think it is terrible.'[4]

{46}

It is only when the after-effects of these diseases are considered that
the full measure of the peril which they create is realised. They not
only lead to an enormous loss of child life, but they also undermine
the health of those on whom they have fastened their fangs,
transmitting the misery even to the third generation. The evidence
shows that more than half the c