SYPHILIS. 155 



exterminate the inhabitants of some of the South Sea 

 Islands. 



As I have said, hereditary syphilis may be trans- 

 mitted from either parent. Statistics go to prove 

 that in a majority of cases the infection comes, as we 

 might anticipate, from the father. As to whether that 

 ot paternal or maternal origin be the more virulent, 

 opinions differ, but at present the weight of evidence 

 appears to be strongly in favour of the maternal being 

 the more fatal. Professor Fournier found the inherited 

 disease to be fatal to the offspring in the following 

 varying proportions according to its source : Paternal 

 28 per cent., maternal 60 per cent., and where both 

 parents were syphilitic, the mortality reached 68.5 per 

 cent, of the pregnancies. 



Not only, then, is this disease the cause of an 

 enormous amount of ill-health, suffering, and family 

 decay among every rank of our population, but it is 

 .also the cause of death in thousands of children, born 

 and unborn, annually. "In London alone, during 

 twelve years (1854-65), there were 3370 deaths from 

 syphilis among children, and 2587 of these were under 

 a year old." How many children were killed before 

 birth by this disease during these years can only be 

 surmised, but that the above figures represent only 

 a very small proportion of the total of the child life 

 so destroyed we may be absolutely certain. 



As to the source of this disease it is unnecessary to 

 say a word. It is known to all that prostitution is 

 the poisoned fountain from which this contamination 



