woman are or have been syphilitic,
permission to marry may be granted without hesitation, as the danger
of infection is absent, but permission to have children must be
refused _absolutely_ and _unequivocally_. Regardless of the time that
may have elapsed from the period of infection, regardless of
treatment, regardless of Wassermann tests, the danger to the child is
too great if both parents have the syphilitic taint in them. A healthy
child _may_ be born from two syphilitic parents who have undergone
energetic treatment, but we have no right to take the chance. I, at
least, never wanted to, nor ever will want to, take such a
responsibility.

=The Danger of Locomotor Ataxia or Paresis.= There is still one more
point to consider in dealing with a syphilitic patient. In patients
who did not receive energetic treatment from the very beginning of the
disease as also in patients whose treatment was only desultory and
irregular, we never can guarantee, in spite of lack of external
symptoms, in spite of a negative Wassermann reaction, that some
trouble may not develop later in life.

What shall we do in such cases and what particularly shall we do if,
from a general examination of the patient, we carry away the
impression that, while free from the danger of infection, the man is
not a good risk? Under these circumstances, we must refuse all
personal responsibility, leaving the assumption of the responsibility
to the prospective wife.

Here is a case in point. About five years ago a man came to me for
examination; he came with his fiancee. He had contracted syphilis ten
years previously, received irregular treatment by mouth, off and on.
For five years, he had had no symptoms of any kind. He _considered_
himself cured, but wanted to know, and his fiancee wanted to know,
whether he really was cured. There were no symptoms of any kind and
the Wassermann test was negative. Nevertheless, I could not give him a
clean bill of health. I noticed what seemed to me a slowness in
thinking and just the least bit of hesitation in his speech.

I told the girl (the man was thirty-five, she was thirty-two) that I
could not render a definite decision in the matter, that everything
might be all right, and then again it might not; but, that the
question about children she would have to decide definitely, once for
all, namely, that she was not to have any children. She was fully
satisfied so far as that part was concerned; she said she hersel