* 

 WHAT MEDICINE HAS DONE AND IS DOING FOR THE RACE 445 



delicate children. Systematic surveys of school children thus 

 act as a prophylactic measure by providing a remedial 

 change of air and rest to those in a pretuberculous or in a 

 very early stage; and further, by the detection and segrega- 

 tion of children so affected as to be a source of infection to 

 others, these surveys by medical men combat the insidious 

 spread of the disease. 



Venereal Disease. Of the two, syphilis and gonorrhea, 

 the first is more far-reaching and devastating in its effects; 

 whereas gonorrhea is locally more effective in causing 

 sterihty and chronic ill-health in women, and in infants 

 ophthalmia and bhndness from infection at the time of birth, 

 syphilis may attack any and every part of the body, and is 

 now known to be the cause of locomotor ataxia, general 

 paralysis of the insane and other disabling conditions which 

 supervene years after the original infection has been thought 

 to be cured. Statistics show that the mortality from loco- 

 motor ataxia and general paralysis has recently diminished — 

 a result which may fairly be correlated with the knowledge 

 that they are late results of syphilis and with the improved 

 and earlier treatment of syphilis. By means of a blood test, 

 the Wassermann reaction, introduced in 1906, the existence 

 of syphilis, although there may not be any other evidence 

 of its responsibility, can be determined, and thus point 

 the way to curative treatment which has been made much 

 more complete and effective in the last twenty years. Syphilis 

 is a killing disease not only of adults but of innocents yet 

 unborn, and is a most potent cause of abortion, miscarriage, 

 still-birth, and infantile mortality; it is said that one third 

 of all syphilitic infants die before birth, and that of the 

 remainder 34 per cent succumb during the first six months 

 of life — an appalling total mortality of 77 per cent (Kasso- 

 witz) ; but fortunately treatment of pregnant women with the 

 disease prevents these fatalities. In England and Wales 

 the establishment of free treatment centers for venereal 

 disease, of which in 1928 there were 188, was at once followed 

 by diminished incidence; in 1920 85,531 persons were 

 treated and in 1924 54,380, the progressive diminution in the 

 number of new cases being due to the successful treatment 

 of syphilis. But in 1928 there were 65,931 new cases. Schau- 



