Science in Public Affairs 



the prevalence of the disease should be ap- 

 pointed. They also point out the inadequacy 

 of hospital accommodation for this disease, and 

 the reluctance doctors have in putting syphilis 

 on a death certificate, so that many of its evils 

 escape notice. For ourselves, we think the in- 

 quiry should take a wider scope. The state of 

 the London streets should be investigated, and 

 the terrible standing danger of women, often in- 

 fected with syphilis, soliciting for prostitution in 

 the public thoroughfares should be dealt with in 

 some more satisfactory way than the present law 

 allows. The question is a thorny one, and the 

 public is very sentimental, but a State which 

 makes laws for Public Health cannot rightly 

 allow a terrible and loathsome disease that 

 strikes down tens of thousands of our fellow- 

 citizens, and spells ruin for hosts of children yet 

 unborn, to spread its infection unheeded, because, 

 forsooth, Society does not like to discuss the sub- 

 ject ! A gigantic mischief calls for drastic changes 

 in the law, far more than the public, who are 

 ignorant of the facts, would sanction. The time 

 will come when the feelings of the individual 

 must be sacrificed for the good of the com- 

 munity, not only in this matter of venereal dis- 

 ease, but in the larger question of the propagation 

 of the unfit. The science of Eugenics, to which 

 Mr. Francis Galton has called scientific attention, 

 has not yet made sufficient progress to influence 

 the legislature. It is doing "spade work" at 

 present, but as the facts of heredity become 



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