146 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



cut, scratch, abrasion, or other break in the cutaneous 

 or mucous surface. Of course in the vast majority of 

 cases the poison is received during unclean sexual 

 connection, but the public should understand that the 

 disease may be, and at times is, acquired in other 

 ways, as we shall see later. 



About three to four weeks after the introduction of 

 the poison, a sore, having decided characteristics of its 

 own, appears at the seat of infection, and soon after 

 the lymphatic glands in the neighbourhood of the sore 

 become enlarged. These do not suppurate, nor are 

 they painful. Later the glands in distant parts of the 

 body may also become enlarged, and this is a distinc- 

 tive sign that the disease is true syphilis. 



The primary sore generally heals without much 

 trouble, and about six weeks later what are called the 

 "secondary symptoms" appear. The person feels out 

 of sorts, becomes feverish and has pains in the head, 

 and shortly a rash appears on the skin in the form of 

 red spots, or papules. The rash may be very plentiful 

 all over the body, or may consist of only a few spots, 

 but its plentifulness or the reverse cannot be taken as 

 any criterion of the severity or mildness of the attack. 

 About this time the throat becomes painful and in- 

 flamed, and sores form there, the hair gets thin in 

 fact, may all be lost, and intractable affections of the 

 nails may appear. 



At this stage the patient is most dangerous to those 

 around him. The discharge from the sore throat, or 

 from any other sore upon the body, even the blood 



