TABOO AND GENETICS 195 



from the taboo system of sexual ethics is the 

 institution of prostitution, the great agency for 

 the spread of venereal disease through the 

 homes of the community, and which takes such 

 heavy toll from the next generation in lowered 

 vitality and defective organization. 



The 191 1 report of the Committee on the 

 Social Evil in Baltimore showed that at the 

 time there was in that city one prostitute to 

 every 500 inhabitants. As is the case every- 

 where, such statistics cover only prostitutes 

 who have been detected. Hospital and clinic 

 reports for Baltimore gave 9,450 acute cases 

 of venereal disease in 1906 as compared with 

 575 cases of measles, 1,172 cases of diphtheria, 

 577 of scarlet fever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of 

 smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis. 



Statistics on the health of young men 

 shown by the physical examinations of the 

 various draft boards throughout the country 

 give us a more complete estimate of the preva- 

 lence of venereal disease among the prospective 

 fathers of the next generation than any other 

 figures for the United States. In an article in 

 the New York Medical Journal for February 2, 

 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical 

 Reserve Corps presents tables showing the 

 percentage of rejections for various disabihties 

 among the applicants for enlistment in the 

 regular army from January i, 1912, to December 



