UNCHASTITY 255 



observation of the sick and a profound study of the 

 literature of the subject, in a great majority of cases, 

 if not invariably, merely syphilis in its more remote 

 stages.' Though there are doubtless many of us who 

 believe that a not inconsiderable proportion of scrofu- 

 lous and phthisical cases are clearly due to other causes 

 than syphilis, we must admit that this statement con- 

 tains a very large element of truth." 



Hereditary Effects of Venereal Disease.— The 

 transgressor is not the only sufferer. If he mar- 

 ries, his children, if they survive infancy, are likely, 

 in later years, to show the effects of their father's sin, 

 exhibiting the forms of the disease seen in its later 

 stages. Scrofula, consumption, cancer, rickets, diseases 

 of the brain and nerves, decay of the bones by caries 

 or necrosis, and other diseases arise in this way. 



But it generally happens that the child dies before 

 birth, or lingers out a miserable existence of a few days 

 or weeks thereafter. A most pitiable sight these little 

 ones are. Their faces look as old as children of ten or 

 twelve. Often their bodies become reduced before 

 death to the most wretched skeletons. Their hollow, 

 feeble cry sends a shudder of horror through the list- 

 ener, and impresses indelibly the terrible consequences 

 of sexual sin. Plenty of these scrawny infants may be 

 seen in the lying-in hospitals. 



No one can estimate how much of the excessive 

 mortality of infants is owing to this cause. 



In children who survive infancy, its blighting in- 

 fluence may be seen in the notched, deformed teeth, 

 and other defects ; and very often it will be found, upon 

 looking into the mouth of the child, that the soft palate, 

 and perhaps the hard palate as well, is in a state of 

 ulceration. There is more than a suspicion that this 



