RACE.IMPROVEMENT IN SWEDEN 77 



portance for the coming generation. Besides being assigned some etiological sig< 

 nificance in the occurrence of a large number of the hereditary diseases, the ven* 

 ereal diseases can also cause sterility, miscarriage and inferior offspring. 



Temperance work has been carried on in this country at least since the middle 

 of the last century. Among its pioneers and leaders, the clergyman and popular 

 speaker PETER WIESEI.GREN (18001877) must be placed first, personally he was a 

 total abstainer from 19 years of age, thus long before the temperance movement 

 began anywhere in the world; and the renowned doctor MAGNUS Huss (18071890), 

 author, among other works, of Alcoholismus chronicus, one of the most noted 

 books among the temperance literature, must also be mentioned by his side. Our 

 five greater temperance societies had, when they were at their greatest in 1910, 

 about 350,000 adult members, in round numbers. Since then they have suffered 

 some decrease, so that the number of members at the beginning of last year was 

 275,000. To these must be added the societies belonging to the Free Churches, 

 which first in 1920 took up temperance work, and whose members are reckoned 

 as going up to 205,000. The legislation in the cause of temperance has during 

 the last few years, gone in the direction of personal restriction. As the result 

 does not seem to be that which one had hoped for, a strong opinion is in course 

 of bulding in favour of the introduction of total prohibition. In connection with 

 this the sinking numbers of members belonging to the temperance societies have 

 begun to rise again. 



The frequency of the venereal diseases in this country has without doubt 

 risen during recent years. Since 1912 the duty of reporting these diseases has 

 become law. The whole number of reported cases was 30,429 (5.2 %o) in 1919, 

 of which 6,451 (1.1 %o) were syphilis cases, 20,651 (3.5 %o) gonorrhoea and 3,327 

 (0.6 %o) were chancre. In the meantime these numbers represent a minimum and 

 the real frequency must therefore 'be essentially greater. The fight against sexual 

 diseases is consequently a very important social question. Besides the part of the 

 marriage law, which prohibits marriage for those suffering from sexual disease in 

 an infectious stage (it is the duty of a doctor to report anyone who defies the 

 law), we have since 1918 a law against the spreading of sexual disease. Regula* 

 tions are joined to the law partly in regard to the treatment free of cost of those 

 suffering from sexual disease and partly in regard to the duty of the doctor giving 

 the treatment, to report the case; negligence can lead to forced treatment of the 

 contumacious person. To expose others to the danger of infection may involve 

 severe punishment. An inquiry has also been made by a committee concerning 

 the measures to be taken for spreading a knowledge of sexual diseases. In the 

 scheme recently propounded it was proposed to carry out a systematic educational 

 work in the schools as well as among elder persons. As the before mention* 

 ed preventive law makes this work of enlightenment more difficult, it is pro* 

 posed to revise it. 



It is naturally of great importance that a good hereditary disposition shall, 

 thanks to favourable outward circumstances, reach full development. Everything 

 working in this direction we comprise under the word euthenic. That the 



