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ment of the brain, and if syphilis of the parent can produce an arrest of 

 development of the sexual organs in the offspring so that there is sterility, 

 there is no reason why the specific energy of the germ-cells should not be 

 affected without actually destroying them. It is an established fact that if 

 congenital syphilis were not so fatal to infant life, the number of people 

 suffering from paralysis of various kinds and insanity from this cause would 

 be appalling. A olood test tends to show that syphilis is the cause of a larger 

 number of idiots and imbeciles than was formerly believed. ^Acquired 

 syphilis, and in rare cases congenital syphilis, are now acknowledged to be 

 the cause of the most terrible form of insanity :" general paralysis. * This 

 disease is fatal a few years after the onset of symptoms ^Xheredity plays 

 relatively an unimportant part in its causation ^fit affects all classes in pro- 

 portion to their liability to syphilitic infection. There are no reliable statistics 

 to show whether syphilitic infection is more prevalent at the present time 

 than formerly ; severe obvious affections are not nearly so prevalent owing 

 probably to a racial immunity or partial immunity, but there is no assurance 

 that the late manifestations affecting especially the brain and spinal cord are 

 not more numerous than formerly. It is certain that with the conversion 

 of the rural into an urban population, the more ready mingling of the town 

 and country population, the short military service, and the frequency 

 with which soldiers were syphilized by service in India, and other causes 

 incidental to life in large cities with their armies of professional prostitutes 

 and clandestine prostitutes, the possibilities of a general and widespread 

 syphilization of the race has occurred since the development of the railway 

 system in England. This has probably led to a partial racial immunity r 

 and the widespread existence of the disease in a latent form. 

 The Eugenics Education Society, recognising the great import- 

 ance of this vital public health question, has endeavoured to 

 obtain an enquiry regarding the prevalence of this disease and the effects 

 of treatment. As the Insurance Act has wisely not deprived sufferers from 

 this disease of medical benefits, an opportunity will shortly arise of ascer- 

 taining the prevalence of the disease, at any rate, in active form, among 

 15 million of the population. New methods of treatment make one have 

 the greatest hope of combating this scourge of the unborn millions who 

 are either killed off before birth, shortly after birth, or who later suffer 

 from terrible diseases of the nervous system, viz., blindness, deafness, 

 idiocy, imbecility, and paralysis. It is a notifiable disease in Scandinavian 

 countries, and I am informed it has recently been made notifiable in Aus- 

 tralia. Our first duty, in the hope of prevention, is the scientific study of 

 the cause. This has not been barren, for one of the greatest advances 

 preventive medicine has made was the discovery of the organism of 

 syphilis by the biologist Schaudinn ; this has led to experiments of the 

 greatest value, and an outcome was a bio-chemical test whereby the syphilitic 

 virus can be detected in the body, even when there are no obvious symp- 



