154 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



ease makes its appearance during the firsj; year or two 

 of life, and either kills its victim, or leaves him feeble 

 and blighted, an easy prey to some other affection. 



As might be expected, all the graver forms of 

 degeneration following or arising from syphilis are 

 to be found at their best or rather worst among 

 the poor in our large towns, where the disease is 

 neglected, and where it has so many other agents of 

 degeneration at work to help it. The ravages of 

 syphilis among the poor of our great cities has long 

 been recognised, but its influence as a degenerating 

 agent among the lower classes has not yet been fully 

 appreciated. Aided by drunkenness, poverty, and 

 squalor, syphilis is largely responsible for that residuum 

 of humanity to be found in the dark places of our 

 great centres of population, from which are recruited 

 the consumptive, the scrofulous, the epileptic, the 

 prostitute, the idiot, the habitual drunkard, the in- 

 stinctive criminal, and the insane. 



The fearful malignancy of the syphilitic poison is 

 best seen among semi-barbarous tribes where it has 

 been introduced, and where no treatment mitigates 

 its virulence. In such cases, a healthy people will 

 soon become a degenerate, disease-ridden race, their 

 constitutional condition often becoming nearly allied 

 to that of the leper. Indeed, some of our very highest 

 authorities have recently gravely questioned whether 

 leprosy be not really one of the disease degenerations 

 which follow neglected syphilis. At present, syphilis, 

 with its following of degenerative disease, bids fair to 



