176 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



its terrible destructiveness in his children. A man or 

 woman who has once suffered with this fell disease, is 

 contaminated for life; and it is a crime for such a 

 one to entail upon innocent, unoffending human beings 

 such a terrible legacy. Such a person has no right to 

 marry; or if married, has no right to perpetuate the 

 results of his sins in offspring. It is never safe to 

 say to a man who has once been infected, You are 

 cured. If a cure ever takes place, it is exceedingly 

 rare. 



A worn-out debauchee certainly has no right to 

 marry. As a medical writer has remarked : ^ ' Marriage 

 is not a hospital or an infirmary for the treatment of 

 disease, or a reformatory institution for the moral 

 leper. More intelligent and just public opinion will 

 do away with such outrages." 



(2) It is a crime against the race. One of the pri- 

 mary objects of marriage is reproduction. As mem- 

 bers of the human race, it is the duty of parents to 

 produce a high type of human beings, at least to do all 

 in their power to produce healthy offspring. If they 

 cannot do this, and are aware of the fact, they are 

 guilty of abuse of the reproductive function in bring- 

 ing sickly offspring into the world to suffer. 



(3) It is injurious to the contracting parties them- 

 selves. If a person has a communicable disease, as 

 syphilis, leprosy, and some bad forms of skin disease, 

 the disease will certainly be communicated to the wife 

 or husband, and so a double amount of suffering will 

 be entailed. The dread disease, consumption, rightly 

 called the scourge of civilization, is now well known 

 to be communicable. A few years ago we were con- 

 sulted by an old gentleman, a native of Canada, who 

 was suffering with pulmonary disease. We inquired 



