ISO MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



that which is transmitted from one or other parent 

 at the time of conception. A child may be infected 

 with syphilis at any period between conception and 

 birth, by a mother who has during that time acquired 

 the disease, but in such cases, although the child is 

 syphilised before it is born, the disease is not true 

 hereditary syphilis, nor is it nearly so deadly as where 

 it is, so to speak, begotten with the germ. 



Hereditary syphilis is one of the most common 

 causes of abortion, and is also the cause of an 

 enormous number of the deaths which occur during 

 the first year or two of life. The virulence of the 

 poison is often so great that the child is killed shortly 

 after conception, and is born dead. In other cases, 

 where the poison is a shade less virulent, the child is 

 born with the disease actually upon it, and often only 

 comes into the world to be carried to the grave. 

 Others, again, are born without active symptoms of 

 the disease, wretched, puny creatures, who develop the 

 disease within a short time of birth, and of whom a 

 large percentage succumb after a short and wretched 

 existence. Another class are those in whom the 

 poison seems to have left a general blight ; the vitality 

 of these is at so low a level that their development 

 physical and mental is not only retarded but limited. 

 Such creatures develop slowly ; at eighteen or twenty 

 years of age they are still children, and such they 

 remain during life. Still another class show the evil 

 influence of their parents' disease in their own de- 

 formity. These have malformed limbs, club-feet, 



