of _eruptions_, mild and severe, by white
little patches (called mucous patches) in the throat, mouth, tonsils,
vagina, by falling out of the hair, etc. The length of this secondary
stage depends a good deal upon the sort of treatment the patient gets.
Improperly treated, or not treated at all, it may last two or three
years or more. Properly treated, it may be cut short at once, in a few
days, so that the patient may never again in his or her life get an
eruption. The third or _Tertiary Stage_ is characterized by
_ulcerations_ in various parts of the body and by _swellings_ or
tumors. The name of a syphilitic swelling or tumor is gumma (plural,
gummata). The tertiary stage is the most terrible stage and it used to
be the terror of syphilitic patients. But at the present time, under
our modern methods of treatment, patients, if properly treated, _never
have a tertiary stage_. We have seen many patients who considered
syphilis a trifling disease, because all they knew of their disease
was the chancre and the first eruption, i.e., the roseola, and perhaps
a slight falling out of the hair. They then put themselves under
energetic treatment, the _activity_ of the disease was checked, and
they never had another symptom afterwards, though a Wassermann test
showed that the disease was not entirely eradicated. It was merely
held in check--which is the second best thing.

[Illustration: SPIROCHETA PALLIDA, OR TREPONEMA PALLIDUM, THE
GERM OF SYPHILIS AS SEEN UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.]

As stated before, syphilis is the most hereditary of all diseases.
Fortunately, if the disease is still very active in the parents,
particularly in the mother, the child is generally aborted. Some
syphilitic mothers will have half a dozen or more miscarriages in
succession. When the disease has become "attenuated," either by
treatment or by itself--many diseases lose their virulence in
time--the child may be carried to term. It then may be born dead, or
it may be born strongly syphilitic, and die in a few days or weeks, or
it may be born without any signs of syphilis and be apparently healthy
and then develop the disease at the age of ten, twelve, fourteen, or
later, or it may be born healthy and remain healthy. But no woman who
had syphilis, or whose husband had syphilis, should _dare_ to conceive
or to give birth to a child unless she has been given permission by a
competent physician. I mean just what I say. It is not a personal
matter. A w