THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 167 



Venereal Diseases in Prussian Cities 



Naturally there are sources of error in these data owing to the 

 tendency of individuals to go to larger cities for treatment. That 

 they indicate a greater liability to infection in the larger cities, 

 however, is confirmed by data on the infections of recruits to the 

 army from various parts of Prussia. Of 10,000 recruits in 1903- 

 05 there were venereal cases as follows : 



Venereal Cases in Urban and Rural Recruits in Prussia 



Berlin 413 



27 other cities over 100,000 158 



26 " " 50-100,000 102 



23 " " 25- 50,000 80 



Small cities and rural districts 44 



Dr. Blaschko contributes further to the bad reputation of 

 Berlin in his estimate that of 1,000 men between 20 and 30 years 

 nearly 200 become infected with gonorrhoea and 24 with syphilis 

 per year, and that of men who marry after 30, each has had 

 gonorrhoea twice on the average, and every one in 4 or 5 has 

 syphilis. This is apt to be an over-estimate. The Berlin Gewerb- 

 skrankenverein reports the yearly number of venereal infections 

 as having increased from 53.6 per thousand male members in 

 1892-95, to 87.1 per thousand male members in 1906-7. Of 

 course a considerable number of cases may not have been reported 

 to the organization, so that the estimates are minimal. Dr. 

 W. Claasen, on the basis of medical reports on syphilis in medical 

 benefit organizations, estimates that from 22.5 per cent to 34 

 per cent of all Berlin workers contract syphilis at some time 



