380 MEDICAL SECTION 



records of more than forty cases of the juvenile form 

 of this terrible malady and about one-half of the 

 cases showed signs on the body of congenital syphilis, 

 so definite that there could be no question of syphilitic 

 infection. The history obtained from the mothers in 

 practically all the cases showed that syphilis could not 

 be excluded as the cause. The usual history was 

 miscarriages or abortions, stillbirths, children dying 

 in infancy of convulsions, marasmus, meningitis, 

 or hydrocephalus ; then follow children who were 

 apparently healthy, but who in later life developed 

 syphilitic disease, manifested often by progressive 

 blindness from atrophy of the optic nerve, inflamma- 

 tion of the cornea of the eye causing opacity, nerve 

 deafness, bone, skin, and visceral lesions. The 

 children may be stunted in growth and show obvious 

 signs of congenital syphilis in the form of notched 

 and pegged teeth, saddle-shaped nose, linear 

 scarring around the angles of the mouth and bosses 

 on the skull. At puberty the genital organs remain 

 undeveloped, and this genital infantilism is frequently 

 associated with various grades of idiocy or imbecility. 

 Children presenting these well-determined signs of 

 congenital syphilis may subsequently develop juvenile 

 general paralysis of the insane, locomotor ataxy, 

 blindness from atrophy of the optic nerve, epilepsy, 

 chorea, hysteria, meningitis, imbecility, and idiocy. 

 But it is more common to find the children of 

 syphilitic parents born later apparently healthy and 

 showing no signs on the body of syphilis ; these, 

 however, in later life, especially when the stress 

 of puberty arrives, may develop various nervous 

 affections, including this juvenile form of general 

 paralysis. 



A year ago, at the Royal Society of Medicine, 

 when a discussion was held on syphilis, I was 

 entrusted with the task of an opening " Address, with 

 special reference to the Relation of the Disease to 



