ases of blindness among children are the
result of these diseases in the parents. Out of 1100 children in the
London County Council Blind Schools at least 55.6 per cent. were
clearly attributable to this cause. In adult life this evil is
responsible for diseases which often manifest themselves after many
years, such as general paralysis, affections of the brain and spinal
cord, and epilepsy. It is because the people have been left in
ignorance as to the terrible consequences not only to themselves but to
their children, that the welfare and happiness of life are thus
sacrificed to sin.

'It is one of the few diseases which {47} are hereditary,' writes Sir
Malcolm Morris, 'and in the hereditary form its effects are even more
disastrous than in the acquired variety.... Many of its innocent
victims die in the first few months of life from meningitis,
hydrocephalus, convulsions, and other affections; if they survive they
are liable to recrudescences of the disease up to the twentieth year or
even later. Growth is checked, vitality depressed, intelligence
stunted; hideous deformities may be produced, sight and hearing may be
destroyed, and the central nervous system may be involved, with results
similar to those which supervene in adults. What a story of mutilation
and massacre of the innocents!'[5]

When these results are considered, there comes a feeling of amazement
that a nation should suffer such plagues to afflict its vitality
without putting forth every effort to stamp them out. The nation which
has become thus afflicted by its own vices must have sunk to a depth
which {48} may well fill the observer with consternation. And the
remedies which are proposed will only deliver the people from the
consequences of their acts--they will not cure the disease itself. The
only salvation lies in the ideal of the pure heart once more shining
forth before the eyes of man. The law of God decrees that sin be
punished; and deliverance for humanity from punishment can only come by
conformity to the law of God. But this is not how we now regard it.
We have set ourselves to combat the social disease not because vice is
hateful but that in the future vice may become safe. When we shall
have attained our end the shadows shall have gathered in deeper
blackness. The few remaining stars shall be blotted out.

VI

Such, in bold outline, are the forces which threaten the continuance
and the well-being of the race. On the a