ciple which
"birth control" represents. Surely that wise provision of our existing
legal code which makes the printing or dissemination of information
regarding the physical facts of "birth control" illegal and punishable
as an offense, can only be approved by those who respect the
Omnipotent will, and the time-hallowed traditions which date back to
the very inception of the race.

CHAPTER IX

SEX DISEASES

The sex diseases are the same in both sexes, whether developed by
direct or accidental infection. They are the greatest practical
argument in favor of continence, morality and marriage in the sex
relation.

GONORRHEA

Gonorrhea is a pus-discharging inflammation of the canal known as the
_urethra_, which passing through the entire length of the organ,
carries both the urine and the seminal fluid. It is caused by a
venereal bacillus, the _gonococcus_. Under favorable conditions and
with right treatment, gonorrhea may be cured, though violently
painful, in fourteen days. Often the inflammation extends, becomes
chronic and attacks other organs. This chronic gonorrhea often causes
permanent contraction of the urethra, which leads to the painful
retention of urine, catarrh of the bladder, and stone. Chronic
gonorrhea, too, often ends in death, especially if the kidneys are
attacked. A cured case of gonorrhea does not mean immunity from
further attacks. New infections are all the more easily acquired.
Gonorrhea has even more dangerous consequences in women than in men.
The _gonococcus_ bacilli infect all the inner female genital organs.
They cause frequent inflammations and lead to growths in the belly.
Women thus attacked usually are apt to be sterile; they suffer
agonies, and often become chronic invalids. The child born of a
gonorrheal mother, while passing through the infected genital organs,
comes to life with infected eyelids. This is _Blennorrhea_, which may
result in total blindness. Gonorrhea also causes inflammation of the
joints, gonorrheal rheumatism, testicular inflammations which may lead
to sterility. Some authorities claim that fully half the sterility in
women is caused by gonorrheal infection of the Fallopian tubes.
Gonorrheal infection of the eyes at birth is now prevented by first
washing them in a saturated solution of boric acid, then treating them
with a drop of weak silver solution.