256 PLAIN FACTS FOE OLD AND YOUNG 



disease may be transmitted for several generations, 

 perhaps remaining latent during the lifetime of one, 

 and appearing in all its virulence in the next. 



Origin of the Foul Disease.— Wliere or when the 

 disease originated, is a mystery. It is said to have 

 been introduced into France from Naples by French 

 soldiers. 



Read the following from a noted French physician : 



''The father, as well as the mother, communicates 

 the syphilitic virus to the children. These poor little 

 beings are attacked sometimes at their birth ; more often 

 it is at the end of a month or two that these morbid 

 s}Tnptoms appear. 



"I recall the heart-rending anguish of a mother 

 whom I assisted at her fifth confinement. She related 

 to me her misfortune : ' I have already brought into the 

 world four children. Alas! they all died during the 

 first months of their existence. A frightful eruption 

 wasted them away, and killed them. Save me the one 

 that is about to be born ! ' cried she, in tears. The child 

 that I delivered was sickly and puny. A few days after 

 its birth, it had purulent ophthalmia ; then, crusted and 

 ulcerated pustules, a few at first, numerous afterward, 

 covered the entire surface of the skin. Soon this miser- 

 able little being became as meager as a skeleton, hid- 

 eous to the sight, and died. Having questioned the 

 husband, he acknowledged to me that he had had 

 syphilis. ' ' * 



Cure of the Social Evil. — With rare excep- 

 tions, the efforts of civil legislation have been directed 

 toward controlling or modifying this vice, rather than 

 extirpating it. 



Among other devices adopted with a view to effect 

 this, and to mitigate in some degree the resulting evils, 



* Bourgeois. 



